Marco Rubio, the US Secretary of State. (Photo: BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI / AFP)
US forces on Monday targeted missile sites in southern Iran and boats trying to lay sea mines.
The attacks come amid top Iranian negotiators arriving in Doha for the latest round of talks to end the months-long Middle Eastern conflict.
“U.S. forces conducted self-defense strikes in southern Iran to protect our troops from threats by Iranian forces,” said Tim Hawkins, a spokesman for the U.S. Army’s Central Command Center.
Despite the attacks, Marco Rubio, the minister of foreign affairs, said that an agreement remains within reach.
“There were some talks going on in Qatar today, so we’ll see if we can make progress. I think there’s a lot of back and forth about specific language in the initial document, so it will take a few days,” Rubio told reporters.
He said the Strait of Hormoes was going to “be open one way or another”.
“What is happening there is illegal, unsustainable for the world, unacceptable.”
Hopes for an agreement between the US and Iran took another blow when the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, undertook to “crush” Hezbollah in Lebanon. Iran has demanded that any peace deal also apply to the fighting in Lebanon.
Pres. Donald Trump said in a social media post that he expects Iran to hand over its enriched uranium to the US to be destroyed, or have it destroyed in Iran with an international witness present.
Trump earlier said it should be mandatory for Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Pakistan, Egypt, Turkey, Bahrain and Jordan to join the Abraham Accords. The set of agreements was brokered in 2020 with nations that have historically been hostile to Israel, and according to Trump it should be part of a peace agreement with Iran.
Trump said he spoke with the leaders of those countries on Saturday about efforts to end the war. Bahrain and the UAE have already signed the agreements, as well as Morocco and Sudan.
Gulf states such as Saudi Arabia and Qatar have said normalization with Israel depends on the creation of a Palestinian state.