Shafaqna Pakistan: The United States said it carried out strikes on Iranian military sites over the weekend, while Iran’s Revolutionary Guards reported on Monday that they had targeted a U.S. base in retaliation, marking the latest exchange amid ongoing negotiations aimed at ending a three-month-long conflict.
The U.S. Central Command stated in a post on X that the strikes along Iran’s Gulf coast were conducted in response to “aggressive Iranian actions,” including the downing of a U.S. MQ-1 drone operating over international waters.
CENTCOM added that U.S. fighter aircraft quickly responded by destroying Iranian air defence systems, a ground control station, and two one-way attack drones that it said posed threats to vessels moving through regional waters. It further stated that the United States would continue to protect its forces and interests during the ongoing ceasefire period.
In response, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said on Monday that it had struck an air base used by U.S. forces for operations against southern Iran, though it did not specify the exact location of the base.
Air defences in Kuwait, where a major U.S. base is located, were intercepting missile and drone attacks on Monday as sirens sounded across the country, the state news agency KUNA reported, without providing further details.
The U.S. and Iran have sporadically exchanged strikes since their ceasefire took effect in early April as negotiations aimed at a more durable agreement drag on. A similar exchange occurred last Thursday and was described in similar terms by both sides.
The war launched by the U.S. and Israel on February 28 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.
U.S. President Donald 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.
Trump is under pressure to reopen the Strait of Hormuz and get U.S. 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.
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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 on Sunday he had ordered troops to move further into Lebanon in the battle against the Iranian-backed Hezbollah militant group.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio spoke with both Lebanese President Joseph Aoun and Netanyahu on the diplomatic negotiations between Israel and Lebanon and has proposed a plan to allow for “gradual de-escalation,” a U.S. official said.
Source: Dunya News
