US attacks missile sites in Iran, despite ceasefire

WASHINGTON, United States, May 26 ------ US forces attacked missile sites in southern Iran and boats trying to lay mines, US Central Command said, as top Iranian negotiators arrived in Doha for talks to end the war. "US forces conducted self-defense strikes in southern Iran today to protect our troops from threats posed by Iranian forces," Tim Hawkins, a US Central Command spokesman, said in a statement.

It gave no details of the attacks and said only that the targets included missile launch sites and boats trying to "emplace mines." The strikes threatened an already fragile ceasefire that began April 8 as the United States and Iran struggle to reach an accord to end a war that has rattled the global economy with a severe disruption of energy flows.

Hopes for an accord in recent days were dealt another blow when Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to "crush" Iran-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon. Iran has demanded that any peace accord apply to the fighting in Lebanon as well. Trump also said in a social media post he expected Iran to hand over its enriched uranium to the United States to be destroyed, or have it destroyed in Iran with an international witness. "The Enriched Uranium (Nuclear Dust!) will either be immediately turned over to the United States to be brought home and destroyed or, preferably, in conjunction and coordination with the Islamic Republic of Iran, destroyed in place or, at another acceptable location, with the Atomic Energy Commission, or its equivalent, being witness to this process and event," Trump wrote. It was not clear whether he meant this is part of an emerging accord with Iran.

The Atomic Energy Commission that Trump cited was abolished in 1974 and its functions were divided between two successor bodies. Earlier Monday, Trump said it should be mandatory for Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Pakistan, Egypt, Turkey, Bahrain and Jordan to sign up to the Abraham Accords, a set of agreements brokered in 2020 with nations historically hostile to Israel, as part of a peace deal with Iran.

Trump said he had spoken to the leaders of those countries Saturday about efforts to end the war with Iran. Bahrain and the UAE have already signed the accords, along with Morocco and Sudan. US and Iranian forces have observed a ceasefire since April 8 while diplomats push for a negotiated settlement, although Iran has maintained controls on Gulf shipping through the Strait of Hormuz and the US Navy has sought to blockade Iran's ports. While the Abraham Accords were welcomed by some, they remain deeply unpopular in many parts of the Middle East -- in part because they fail to address the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Gulf heavyweights like Saudi Arabia and Qatar have said they will never normalize ties with Israel unless an independent Palestinian state is created.

Source: news.abs-cbn.com