US strikes Iranian military sites, Tehran hits air base
· RTE.ieThe US said it struck Iranian military sites at the weekend and Iran's Revolutionary Guards said it had targeted a US base in response, the latest exchange of attacks amid negotiations to end the three-month-old war.
The US and Iran have sporadically exchanged strikes since their ceasefire took effect in early April as diplomacy aimed ata more durable agreement drags on. A similar exchange occurred last Thursday and was described in near-identical terms by bothsides.
The weekend US strikes on Iran's Gulf coast were in response to "aggressive Iranian actions that included theshootdown of a U.S. MQ-1 drone that was operating overinternational waters," the US Central Command said in a post on X.
"US fighter aircraft swiftly responded by eliminatingIranian air defences, a ground control station, and two one-wayattack drones that posed clear threats to ships transitingregional waters," CENTCOM said, adding it will continue to protect US assets and interests during the ongoing ceasefire.
Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said it had targeted an air base used by the US in response to the attack on southern Iran, without identifying which base.
Air defences in Kuwait, where a major US base is located,were intercepting missile and drone attacks today as sirens sounded across the country, the state news agency KUNA reported, without providing further details.
The war launched by the US and Israel on 28 February has killed thousands of people, mainly in Iran and Lebanon, and caused global economic pain by pushing up energy prices due to Iran's effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz.
Stop negative 'chirping', Trump says
In a late night social media post, US President DonaldTrump did not mention the exchange of hostilities, repeating his as-yet unproven claim that Iran "really wants to make a deal".
He berated critics, including what he described as"seemingly unpatriotic Republicans", for negative "chirping" about negotiations to end the conflict.
"Just sit back and relax, it will all work out well in the end - It always does!" he said.
Mr Trump is under pressure to reopen the Strait of Hormuz and get US gasoline prices down ahead of the November congressional elections, as voters show increasing frustration over rising prices. At the same time, he faces a potential backlash from Iran hawks in his own party over any concessions to Tehran.
Oil prices rose about 2% in Asia as the lack of progress in negotiations kept traders on edge.
Mr Trump has said his key aim in the war is to prevent Iran from developing a nuclear weapon with its highly enriched uranium. Tehran has consistently denied it has plans to do that.
The two sides remain at odds on several other issues, such as Tehran's demands for the lifting of sanctions and the release of tens of billions of dollars of Iranian oil revenues frozen in foreign banks.
Israel's war in Lebanon with the Iranian-backed Hezbollah militia is another major impediment.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said yesterday he had ordered troops to move further into Lebanon in the battle against the Iranian-backed Hezbollah militant group.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio spoke to both Lebanese President Joseph Aoun and Mr Netanyahu on the diplomatic negotiations between Israel and Lebanon and has proposed a plan to allow for "gradual de-escalation," a US official said.