Report says Iran and U.S. reach outline ceasefire deal after latest attacks
Written by: Jana Choukeir, Enas Alashray and Phil Stewart
WASHINGTON/DUBAI, May 28 (Reuters) – The United States and Iran have reached a draft agreement to extend a ceasefire pending President Donald Trump’s approval after Washington targeted a U.S. air base in Kuwait following U.S. strikes that Iran said were a drone operation, Axios reported on Thursday.
According to Axios’ report, the two sides agreed to a 60-day memorandum of understanding to extend the ceasefire and begin negotiations on Iran’s nuclear program, but the plan still needed Trump’s approval.
There was no immediate confirmation of the report, which caused oil prices to reverse course and decline.
Trump has repeatedly said the end of the war is near, but told the media at Wednesday’s cabinet meeting that he was not yet satisfied with the talks and that the United States had not discussed sanctions relief, one of Tehran’s demands.
USA AND IRAN BLOW TO TRADE
The latest attacks, though limited, have highlighted the fragility of negotiations to turn a tenuous ceasefire in early April into a permanent agreement to end a three-month war that has killed thousands and reopen the vital Strait of Hormuz shipping route.
US forces shot down five Iranian attack planes and hit a ground control station in the port city of Bandar Abbas that was about to launch a sixth, US Central Command said. Kuwaiti forces later intercepted a ballistic missile fired towards the country, which hosts a major US base.
“These actions were measured, purely defensive and aimed at maintaining the ceasefire,” a US official, who requested anonymity to speak candidly about military operations, told Reuters earlier.
The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said it targeted the US base responsible for the attack near Bandar Abbas airport in the early hours of the morning and that any repetition would lead to a “more determined response”, Tasnim news agency reported.
Kuwait condemned the attack and demanded that Iran immediately stop what it described as a serious escalation.
The violence, the second flare-up this week, coincided with Eid al-Adha, a Muslim holiday celebrated across the region, with multiple countries involved in the conflict triggered by U.S. and Israeli attacks on Iran on Feb. 28.
Mediator Pakistan said its foreign minister, Ishaq Dar, would meet US Secretary of State Marco Rubio in Washington on Friday, but the significance of his visit was unclear.
In Lebanon, which Iran says should be part of a general peace agreement, Israel said it started hitting the infrastructure of Iran-backed Hezbollah militants in the southern city of Tire and carried out an attack in the capital Beirut.
While the Lebanese army said that one of its soldiers was killed in the attack, Israel, which followed Hezbollah and displaced hundreds of thousands of people deep into Lebanon, said that air raid sirens sounded in its north.
WARNING TO OMAN
The United States warned Oman on Thursday not to interfere with efforts to impose tolls on the Strait of Hormuz, saying any partners involved in such a system would be punished.
“Oman in particular should know that the U.S. Treasury will aggressively target all actors involved in facilitating tolls across the Bosphorus – directly or indirectly – and any willing partners will be punished,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told X.
Trump said no country could have sole control of the waterway and appeared to threaten Oman, with whom the United States has had military and economic ties for decades.
“These are international waters and Oman will behave like everyone else, or we will have to blow them up. They understand that, they will be fine,” he said on Wednesday.
Oman did not mention the idea of joint control of the strait with Iran, which it said had discussed freedom of navigation. Tehran expressed solidarity with Oman following what it called “threats from US officials”.
(Reporting by Reuters bureaus; Writing by Lincoln Feast, Philippa Fletcher and Keith Weir; Editing by Hugh Lawson and Jon Boyle)
