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The US military has carried out fresh strikes against Iran, reportedly targeting a miliary site around the strategic Strait of Hormuz.
Iranian media reported that three loud explosions rang out in the Iranian port city of Bandar Abbas, near the Strait of Hormuz, in the early hours of Thursday morning, local time.
According to Reuters, US forces struck an Iranian ground control station in the city and shot down four Iranian one-way attack drones.
The ground control station was about to launch a fifth drone, the publication reports, citing a US official who spoke on the condition of anonymity.
The official said the strikes were “purely defensive” and were “intended to maintain the ceasefire”.
It comes after US President Donald Trump said the “nobody” would control the Strait of Hormuz – a key waterway where one fifth of the world’s oil transited before the war.
“The strait is going to be open to everybody,” he said at a Cabinenet meeting on Tuesday, US time.
“Nobody is going to control it.”
Mr Trump said Iran was “intent” on making a deal to end the war – which began on February 28.
“Iran is very much intent, they want very much to make a deal. So far they haven’t gotten there. We’re not satisfied with it, but we will be,” he said.
“Either that or we’ll have to just finish the job.”
The US miliary said it carried out “self-defense strikes” in southern Iran on Monday,
“U.S. forces conducted self-defense strikes in southern Iran today to protect our troops from threats posed by Iranian forces,” Captain Tim Hawkins said.
“Targets included missile launch sites and Iranian boats attempting to emplace mines. U.S. Central Command continues to defend our forces while using restraint during the ongoing ceasefire.”
Oil prices climb after strikes
Earlier hopes of a deal between Iran and the US sent benchmark oil prices falling more than five per cent on Wednesday but prices have bounced back higher after the fresh strikes were reported on Thursday.
International benchmark, Brent North Sea crude rose by nearly two per cent to $96.13 (US) a barrel on Thursday.
Meanwhile, US benchmark West Texas Intermediate (WT) increased by 1.75 per cent to $90.23 (US) a barrel.
‘One way or the other’
Iran and the US have traded threats for weeks while negotiating through Pakistani mediation.
Neither side appears ready to compromise on the main sticking points: Hormuz and Iran’s nuclear program.
A key focus of the deal has also been restoring full traffic to the Strait of Hormuz, which Tehran has effectively closed, leaving global energy markets grappling with curbed supplies of the huge amounts of oil and gas that normally pass through it.
On Wednesday, the Guards’ navy said only ships “willing to abide by Iranian order” could pass through Hormuz.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Tuesday that a deal remained within reach, but that the Strait of Hormuz would be reopened “one way or the other”.
“The straits have to be open, they’re going to be open one way or the other, so they need to be open,” he told reporters.
Iran has also insisted any peace accord must apply to Lebanon, where an April 17 ceasefire has done little to halt fighting between Israel and Hezbollah, which drew the country into the war by attacking Israel in early March in retaliation for the death of Iran’s supreme leader.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed Monday to “crush” Hezbollah, while army chief Lieutenant Colonel Eyal Zamirsaid Wednesday that Israel was “intensifying our operations” against the group.
– With AFP
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