The China Mail - US, Iran exchange fire as negotiations stall

Weeks of complicated talks marked by sharp rhetoric and occasional flare-ups of violence have not managed to reach a deal to end the war and reopen the Strait of Hormuz, which is essential to oil supplies.

Washington and Tehran have sharp differences on questions like Iranian nuclear efforts and the fighting in Lebanon, which Iran has demanded must stop as part of a broader agreement.

The latest exchange of fire coincided with Israel expanding its offensive in Lebanon, with Prime Minister Netanyahu vowing to push deeper into the country.

The US military announced that it had carried out "self-defense strikes" on Iranian radar and drone control sites in the southern part of the country over the weekend -- its third such wave in just over a week.

The strikes were in response to the downing of a US MQ-1 drone, it added.

Shortly after, Iran's Revolutionary Guards said they targeted an "air base from which the attack originated" used by the US military, state broadcaster IRIB reported Monday, without specifying the location of the base.

The Guards' announcement came on the heels of the Kuwaiti military saying its air defences intercepted "hostile missile and drone attacks", without mentioning where attack originated.

- Sticking points -

Iran was already in talks with the United States about the fate of its nuclear programme in February when the US and Israel launched air and missile strikes that wiped out much of the Islamic republic's senior leadership.

While Tehran has long insisted that its nuclear programme is for purely civilian ends, the United States and its Western allies suspect it aims to develop a weapon.

The New York Times and Axios reported on Saturday that Trump had sent back a "tougher" new framework to be considered by Iran, though details remain unclear.

Trump has said his priorities include stopping Iran from developing any nuclear weapon and reopening the Hormuz shipping lane, which Iran has blockaded since the war began.

"The one guarantee that I have to have is that there will be no nuclear weapons. They've agreed to that, and it was very interesting," he told his daughter-in-law Lara Trump in an interview on her Fox News show.

Late Sunday, Trump stressed on Truth Social that the proposed deal "states, very clearly, that Iran will not have a Nuclear Weapon".

Tehran, however, has previously cast doubt on Trump's assertions and the sides remain far apart on key issues.

"We will not approve any agreement until we are certain that the rights of the Iranian people have been upheld," Iran's top negotiator Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf said in a video broadcast on state television.

According to the Tasnim news agency, exchanges on the text "are ongoing, with both parties regularly proposing amendments".

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, meanwhile, said that "until a clear conclusion is reached... everything that is being said now is speculation", according to state TV.

Iran has said it needs the release of $12 billion in frozen assets before engaging in substantive talks on its nuclear programme, dismissing earlier Trump comments that its enriched uranium stockpile would be destroyed as "baseless", according to Iranian media.

Trump is under pressure to secure a deal that would lift competing US and Iranian blockades around the Strait of Hormuz that have strangled a vital route for global oil supplies.

After Trump said Iran would charge "no tolls" on ships passing through the strait under any deal, Iranian news agency Fars cited sources saying "no such clause" existed.

Iran's ISNA news agency on Saturday quoted lawmaker Alireza Salimi as saying a plan for Iranian "management and sovereignty" over the strait -- including imposing "administrative fees" -- would soon go before parliament.

- Lebanon front -

Tehran has insisted that any peace deal include Lebanon, where fierce fighting continues, with Beirut accusing Israel of pursuing a "scorched-earth policy" as it expands operations against Iran-backed Hezbollah.

A truce between Israel and Hezbollah formally began on April 17 but it has never been observed, with both sides accusing each other of violating it.

An Israeli strike in southern Lebanon killed eight people on Sunday, including three women, according to the Lebanese health ministry.

The UN Security Council will hold an emergency meeting Monday on the widening Israeli offensive following its capture of the strategic medieval castle of Beaufort, diplomatic sources told AFP.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called the retaking of Beaufort "a dramatic shift."

T.Wu--ThChM