The United States has launched strikes on targets in southern Iran, the US military has said, as Tehran’s top negotiators gather in Qatar for talks aimed at reaching a peace deal with Washington.
US Central Command (CENTCOM) said it carried out the “self-defence strikes” to protect US troops from threats posed by Iranian forces.
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“Targets included missile launch sites and Iranian boats attempting to emplace mines,” Navy Captain Tim Hawkins, a CENTCOM spokesperson, said in a statement to Al Jazeera late on Monday.
“US Central Command continues to defend our forces while using restraint during the ongoing ceasefire.”
CENTCOM did not provide further details on the strikes.
Iranian sources told Al Jazeera that the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) had targeted a vessel at sea before the US strikes.
Several IRGC personnel were killed in the attacks, according to the sources.
The latest attacks come despite there being a ceasefire officially in place between the US and Iran since April 8.
Reporting from Washington, DC, Al Jazeera’s Alan Fisher said the strikes are likely to derail the ongoing negotiations to end the US-Israel war on Iran.
“There is very limited information coming from the US side; we don’t know the extent of the operation. It’s hard to say whether this skirmish is unusual,” he said.
“But Trump is keen to move forward with negotiations and solidify a peace deal.”
Earlier on Monday, a high-level Iranian delegation arrived in Doha to discuss roadblocks to a permanent peace deal.
The arrival of the delegation, which includes Iranian Minister of Foreign Affairs Abbas Araghchi and Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, came as US President Donald Trump said that peace talks were “proceeding nicely”, even as he insisted that he would not agree to anything less than a substantial deal.
“It will only be a Great Deal for all or, no Deal at all — Back to the Battlefront and shooting, but bigger and stronger than ever before — And nobody wants that!” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
Trump said also sought to tie the peace negotiations to a commitment by Muslim-majority countries, including Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and Pakistan, to sign up to Abraham Accords to normalise ties with Israel.
“It may be possible that one or two have a reason for not doing so, and that will be accepted, but most should be ready, willing, and able to make this Settlement with Iran a far more Historic Event than it would, otherwise, be,” Trump wrote.
Signed in 2020 during Trump’s term, the Abraham Accords normalised relations between Israel and the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, and Morocco.
Sudan also agreed to establish diplomatic ties with Israel but has yet to ratify the agreement.
In a follow-up post on Monday, Trump said that he expected Iran to enriched uranium either being turned over to the US for disposal or “destroyed in place or, at another acceptable location, with the Atomic Energy Commission, or its equivalent, being witness to this process and event.”
Iran’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said on Monday that Washington and Tehran had made progress in their talks, but downplayed the prospect of an impending breakthrough.
“To say that we have reached a conclusion on a large portion of the issues under discussion would be correct. However, to say that this means an agreement is on the verge of being signed is not something anyone can claim,” said ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei.
Addressing a news conference in Tehran, Baghaei also said the sides were not discussing Iran’s nuclear programme “at this stage,” with their focus on ending the war.
