Earlier, President Donald Trump and U.S. military leaders described a push and a pause at the same time: the U.S. said it carried out “self-defense” strikes in southern Iran, and Trump posted that negotiations with Tehran were “proceeding nicely.”
The U.S. military said Monday that the strikes targeted missile launch sites and also hit boats it said were placing mines, according to a statement by Capt. Tim Hawkins, the spokesman for the U.S. military’s Central Command.
Hawkins said the strikes were done “to protect our troops from threats posed by Iranian forces,” and he said the military was “using restraint during the ongoing ceasefire,” the statement said.
Further details about the threats the U.S. cited were not immediately available, and there was no official response from Iran to the U.S. announcement, the report said. It said Iran had previously sent its parliament speaker, Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, to Qatar for negotiations over a possible deal with the United States.
Qatar, where Qalibaf is in talks, has also faced intense attacks from Iran during the war, and it holds billions of dollars in frozen Iranian funds, the report said. In Iran, the report said the news website Tabnak, believed close to former Revolutionary Guard chief Mohsen Rezaei, identified four Guard troops it said had been killed in U.S. strikes on boats, while Iranian state television reported blasts around Bandar Abbas, a port city on the Strait of Hormuz.
The strikes were the latest in a series of attacks that have shaken a weekslong ceasefire, according to the report. It said the Strait of Hormuz, through which a fifth of all crude oil and natural gas traded once passed, remains effectively under Iran’s control in a way that disrupts global energy markets.
While the U.S. described military action as restrained and linked to protecting troops, Trump broadened the diplomatic frame. He said on social media that any agreement to end the Iran war should include a requirement for several additional countries, including Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, to join the Abraham Accords, the U.S.-brokered agreements from Trump’s first term aimed at normalizing relations with Israel.
The proposal came as the emerging Iran deal faced criticism from fellow Republicans who favor a harder line on Iran, the report said, and it could add new diplomatic complications to the talks. Trump pointed to Saudi Arabia and Qatar as countries that should “immediately” sign on, and he noted Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates became the first countries to join in 2020.
Trump wrote that “after all the work done by the United States to try and pull this very complex puzzle together, it should be mandatory that all of these Countries, at a minimum, simultaneously, sign onto the Abraham Accords,” the report said. The report also said Trump has long hoped Saudi Arabia would join and that Saudi Arabia for decades has called on Israel to return to its 1967 borders and allow the formation of a Palestinian nation with east Jerusalem as its capital.
On the question of Pakistan’s role, the report said recognition of a Palestinian state remains key for Islamabad because it is among the countries that do not have diplomatic relations with Israel. The report quoted an Islamabad-based analyst, Syed Mohammad Ali, saying Pakistan’s position on Israel remains unchanged despite Trump’s latest proposal, and it cited Masood Khan, Pakistan’s former ambassador to the United States, as saying it remains to be seen how workable the proposal might be for the countries on Trump’s list.
Khan said the Abraham Accords issue would give “an altogether new dimension to the diplomatic and mediatory processes” because it “was not on the agenda,” pointing to domestic pressure Trump faces to strike a favorable deal. The report added that Khan also said “the diplomatic track is still working,” and that he believes Pakistan is “very much at the center of it,” supported by regional countries.
It was still unclear when or how any deal with Iran might be completed, the report said, and it noted Trump suggested even Iran could eventually sign onto the accords if an agreement is reached.