After weeks of threats and discussions, the United States announced on the night of Monday 25 to Tuesday 26 that it had carried out strikes in Iran, targeting, according to the American army, missile sites in the south of the country.
The United States announced this Monday, May 25, that it had struck missile sites in southern Iran, dealing a blow to the ceasefire despite apparent progress in negotiations to settle the war in the Middle East.
After weeks of blockages and threats, Washington and Tehran have reported progress in recent days in discussions. Donald Trump even hinted at an imminent compromise over the weekend.
But hopes for peace were dampened on Monday, firstly by the announcement by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of an intensification of his army’s offensive in Lebanon, then by an attack against Iran.
“US forces today conducted self-defense strikes in southern Iran to protect our troops from threats posed by Iranian forces. Targets included missile launch sites and Iranian craft attempting to lay mines,” the US Middle East Command (Centcom) said in a statement. a press release.
US military says ‘exercise restraint during ceasefire’
Iranian media reported that several loud explosions were heard in Bandar Abbas (south) around midnight (10:30 p.m. in Paris). State television then clarified that the situation had returned to normal, adding that an investigation was underway to determine the origin of the noises.
The American army specified “to show restraint during the ceasefire” in force since April 8 between Iran and the United States after several weeks of war which left thousands dead and shook the world economy.
But American Secretary of State Marco Rubio indicated that an agreement with Iran remained possible. The discussions essentially revolve “around the precise wording of the initial text, so it will take a few days”, he declared during an official visit to India, without providing information on the latest strikes.
Donald Trump is looking for a way out of this war which has seriously disrupted the world economy due to the blockage of the strategic Strait of Hormuz by Tehran, through which a fifth of the crude oil and liquefied natural gas consumed in the world normally transits.
Marco Rubio argued Tuesday that the strait would reopen “one way or another.” And added: “what is happening there is illegal, it is illegal, it is unsustainable for the whole world.”
Oil prices reacted in a contrasting manner to the latest developments, after falling back below the $100 mark on Monday. WTI lost 5.2% on Tuesday morning in Asia, while the barrel of Brent gained 1.8%.
The nuclear question
The last few hours had been marked by a new acceleration in diplomatic exchanges.
Senior Iranian officials, including chief negotiator Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf and Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, visited Doha on Monday. It is the first visit of this type since the retaliatory strikes carried out by Tehran against its Gulf neighbors.
Donald Trump had already tempered hopes of an imminent agreement, saying he did not want to “rush”.
Tehran was also cautious. “We have reached a conclusion on a large part of the issues,” commented the spokesperson for the Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Esmaïl Baghaï. “But to say that the signing of an agreement is imminent, no one can say that.”
At the same time, a delegation from Pakistan including the main mediator in the conflict and army chief Asim Munir as well as Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif was in China on Monday, a country supporting Pakistani efforts to resolve the crisis.
The reopening of the blocked Strait of Hormuz in fact by Iran since the start of the war launched by the United States and Israel on February 28, is a major issue in the conflict.
Donald Trump spoke on Saturday of a “widely negotiated” compromise providing for its reopening, while Iran insists that the nuclear issue is not part “at this stage” of the protocol under discussion and that it would be addressed during separate negotiations.
Monday evening, President Trump also mentioned the issue of Iranian enriched uranium, saying that it would be “either immediately handed over to the United States (…) and destroyed, or, preferably, in collaboration and coordination with the Islamic Republic of Iran, destroyed on site or in another acceptable location.” It is unclear whether he meant by this that it was a point of the agreement under discussion.
Ceasefire violations in Lebanon
Earlier Monday, he also appeared to raise the stakes for a possible peace deal.
In a social media post, he listed the leaders of predominantly Muslim countries he has spoken with recently, saying “after all the work the United States has done… all of these countries should be required, at a minimum, to sign simultaneously the Abraham Accords”.
Signed in 2020, these agreements led to a normalization of relations between the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, two close allies of Washington, with Israel. Many states have so far refused to imitate them, in particular Saudi Arabia as well as Syria and Lebanon, from a stronger since the conflict which ravaged the Gaza Strip.
On the Lebanese front, another ceasefire has been concluded since April 17, but Israel and the pro-Iranian Hezbollah accuse each other of violating it, continuing their daily attacks.
Benjamin Netanyahu said Monday that Israel would “intensify” its offensive to “crush” Hezbollah, after dozens of Israeli strikes which left three dead, according to the Lebanese national information agency, Ani.
Hezbollah, for its part, claimed responsibility for a series of attacks against three barracks and a military post in northern Israel.
