WASHINGTON — The U.S. military carried out strikes Monday in southern Iran against targets including boats attempting to lay mines and missile launch sites.
U.S. Central Command said the strikes were designed "to protect our troops from threats posed by Iranian forces."
Explosions were heard in Iran's Bandar Abbas city and coastal areas near the Strait of Hormuz, Iranian media reported. Iran previously said it downed a "hostile" stealth drone using a new air defense system, Iranian news agencies reported, without saying where it came from.
"U.S. Central Command continues to defend our forces while using restraint during the ongoing ceasefire," said Navy Captain Tim Hawkins, a command spokesperson.
People walk Monday past a billboard with a picture of Iranian people in Tehran.
In a lengthy social media post earlier in the day, U.S. President Donald Trump said talks with Iran were going "nicely" but warned of fresh attacks if they failed. It "will only be a Great Deal for all, or no Deal at all," he wrote.
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Iran's top negotiator and its foreign minister were in Doha for talks with Qatar's prime minister on a potential deal with the U.S. to end the 3-month-old war, an official briefed on the visit said, after Washington and Tehran played down hopes for an imminent breakthrough.
The official briefed on the Iranians' Doha visit told Reuters the discussions focused primarily on the Strait of Hormuz and Iran's stockpile of highly enriched uranium, while the country's central bank governor was also part of the delegation to discuss the potential release of frozen Iranian oil revenues as part of a final deal.
Iran's foreign ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei said nuclear issues would be negotiated only if the framework accord is agreed to first.
Trump said his key aim in the war is to prevent Iran from developing a nuclear weapon with its highly enriched uranium; Tehran consistently denied it plans to do that.
The two sides remain at odds on several other issues, such as Israel's war in Lebanon and 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.
Potentially complicating later talks, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Monday that Israel would intensify strikes against Hezbollah militants in Lebanon. Soon after, Israel's military said it attacked Hezbollah infrastructure in Lebanon's eastern Bekaa Valley and several other areas.
Israel and Lebanon agreed to a ceasefire in mid-April, but Israel continued airstrikes it says are acts of self-defense against Hezbollah, which was not party to the truce.
Plumes of smoke billow Monday following Israeli strikes on southern Lebanon, seen from Nabatieh, Lebanon.
Trump pushes Abraham Accords
In his social media post, Trump also called on more Arab and Muslim states to sign up to the Abraham Accords, brokered during his first term in office and aimed at normalizing ties between those states and Israel. He said Saudi Arabia and Qatar should immediately sign and Pakistan, Egypt, Jordan and Turkey should follow suit, calling his request mandatory.
He also said the countries would be honored to have Iran as part of the accords once a deal to end the war is reached.
Netanyahu's office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Firefighters work at the scene of an Israeli strike Monday in Kfar Roummane, southern Lebanon.
A Pakistani source familiar with the matter said Trump's statement reflected an attempt to use the Iran diplomacy for a wider push around the accords, but the two issues were "not interlinked and cannot be made so."
Others saw the suggestion as aimed at making an Iran deal more palatable to skeptics.
"Trump is trying to sell an Iran deal as an Abraham Accords sequel: good for Israel, good for the region, tough enough for Washington," said Ali Vaez, Iran project director at the International Crisis Group.
"But he is trading one fantasy for another — from forcing Iran to surrender to pretending a fragile deal can anchor a new Middle East order," Vaez added.
Vessels are anchored Monday at the Strait of Hormuz, seen from Musandam, Oman.
Iran deal sticking points
Baghaei said the potential Iran deal contained no specific details on management of the Strait of Hormuz, through which about a fifth of the world's oil and liquefied gas usually flows.
Iran will not charge tolls for ships to pass through but there will be a cost for services offered such as navigation and steps to protect the environment, he said, under a protocol to be agreed with Oman, which lies on the opposite shore of the waterway.
Citing a Middle East diplomatic source, Japan's Nikkei newspaper reported the U.S. and Iran were discussing a plan to open the strait about 30 days after reaching a deal to end hostilities.
Iran would then clear mines from the strait during a 30-day window, after which ships from all countries could navigate freely and safely, Nikkei reported.
Since the U.S. and Israel launched Feb. 28 strikes on Iran, only a few dozen vessels passed through the strait, compared with 125 to 140 daily previously.
Iran's state TV said Monday that 32 vessels and five oil tankers passed through the strait in 24 hours with the authorization of Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps. naval forces.
The standoff caused a spike in oil prices and drove up the costs of fuel, fertilizer and food. On Monday, oil prices fell to two-week lows amid optimism that a deal might come soon.
Earlier, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters in New Delhi that the U.S. would give diplomacy every chance to succeed before considering whether to deal with Iran in "another way."
