WASHINGTON/CAIRO, June 28 (Reuters) – Iran and the United States agreed to halt recent hostilities in the Gulf and renew talks regarding their dispute over the Strait of Hormuz, a U.S. official said on Sunday, raising hopes of saving an interim peace deal that was under pressure from days of tit-for-tat strikes.
“Technical talks are slated to continue on all areas of the MOU. Both sides will stand down for now, and vessels can move freely,” the official said, referring to the 14-point memorandum of understanding that was agreed on June 17 under which the strait would be reopened for traffic. Axios, which first reported the cessation of hostilities, citing a senior U.S. official, said talks would resume Tuesday in Qatar.
A return to diplomacy would follow several days of strikes and counterstrikes since an Iranian projectile hit a cargo vessel in the Strait of Hormuz on Thursday, with both the U.S. and Iran accusing the other of breaking an interim ceasefire that was agreed to on June 17. Iran launched missiles and drones at U.S. military sites in Kuwait and Bahrain early on Sunday, shortly after President Donald Trump threatened that the Islamic Republic would cease to exist if it did not honor the agreement to end the war.
Meanwhile, Israel said on Sunday it had once again struck Iran-backed armed Hezbollah militants in Lebanon, destroying underground infrastructure used by the group in a village in southern Lebanon. That came after another strike on Saturday, which closely followed its latest ceasefire deal with Lebanon on Friday. Iran says the fighting in Lebanon must end if the wider agreement is to stick.
The U.S. military said earlier it had struck Iran again, hours after a tanker was hit in the Strait of Hormuz, the world’s most important energy shipping route, which Tehran has largely closed for most of the conflict.
“There may come a point when we are no longer able to be reasonable, and will be forced to militarily complete the job that we very successfully started,” Trump said on social media, before the Axios report.
“If that happens, the Islamic Republic of Iran will no longer exist!” he added. The 14-point interim peace accord was meant to halt the fighting, which the U.S. and Israel started on February 28, and reopen the strait while talks proceeded on issues such as Iran’s nuclear program.
VIOLENCE, ACCUSATIONS FOLLOW PEACE DEAL
One round of mediated talks, led by Vice President JD Vance and Iran’s parliamentary speaker, Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf, was held in Switzerland a week ago and Washington waived sanctions on Tehran, but fighting has since resumed and intensified.
About an hour after Trump’s post, Kuwait’s army said its air defenses were responding to missile and drone attacks, while Bahrain said sirens had sounded there.
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said in a statement its navy and air forces had launched missile and drone operations targeting U.S. military sites in Kuwait and Bahrain.
The Guards said U.S. strikes had violated the ceasefire and “will result in the complete halt of all diplomatic processes”, state-run Press TV said. The IRGC Navy command said American bases in the region “will experience hell in the coming days”.
A U.S. official, confirming Iran had targeted U.S. facilities, told Reuters there were no reported U.S. casualties or major damage to U.S. sites in the Middle East but the situation was still unfolding.
Hours later, alarms sounded for a second time in Bahrain, where authorities said an Iranian attack damaged a residential building in Muharraq province, with no casualties reported. Bahrain urged the U.N. Security Council to hold an urgent session to hold Iran accountable.
The Kuwaiti army said it had intercepted two ballistic missiles with no damage or casualties. Separately, Qatar said one of its nationals had died after sustaining injuries from shrapnel aboard a vessel that had gone missing on Saturday. A second person was injured in the incident, which was due to “military operations in the area”, the interior ministry said, without giving a location or apportioning blame.
(Reporting by Reuters bureaux; Writing by Daniel Trotta, William Mallard and Alexander Smith; Editing by Kate Mayberry, Philippa Fletcher and Sanjeev Miglani)