• Washington says strikes targeted Iranian missile sites, mine-laying boats
• Rubio says Iran deal may take ‘a few days’; insists Hormuz will reopen ‘one way or the other’
• Iran says US drone downed, F-35 fired at; tanker damaged by external explosion off Oman
• Trump to hold Camp David cabinet meeting on Iran crisis
TEHRAN: Iran accused the United States of breaching their ceasefire on Tuesday and warned it was ready to retaliate and “will not leave any evil unanswered” after overnight US strikes targeting Iranian missile sites and mine-laying boats threatened a deal to end the war.
The Brent benchmark oil price jumped up by more than four per cent after US Central Command announced the new wave of bombings, and China urged both sides to respect the truce and to resolve their dispute peacefully.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, meanwhile, said negotiating a deal to halt the conflict could “take a few days”.
According to Iranian media, Iran’s negotiators had been pushing for the memorandum to include the release of billions of frozen assets at talks in Qatar.
The maritime safety monitor UKMTO said a blast damaged a tanker on the waterline off Oman — although the crew and vessel were reportedly safe after what was described as an “external explosion”.
Iranian state media reported overnight blasts in the southern port city of Bandar Abbas, near the Strait of Hormuz, and the country’s Revolutionary Guards said its forces had downed a US drone entering its airspace and had fired at an F-35 fighter jet.
“The US terrorist army, continuing its illegal and unjustified actions since the ceasefire … has, in the past 48 hours, committed a gross violation of the ceasefire in the Hormozgan region,” the Iranian foreign ministry said.
It added that Tehran “will not leave any evil unanswered and will not hesitate to defend the Iranian nation”, without elaborating.
A senior spokesperson for Iran’s armed forces also warned that any resumption of US and Israeli air strikes on Iran would meet a “heavier” and “stronger” retaliation, Al Jazeera reported.
“If the region enters another round of war, Iran’s response will extend beyond regional borders and will be much heavier and stronger,” Abolfazl Shekarchi said in remarks carried by the Fars news agency.
Tim Hawkins, a spokesman for US Central Command, said: “US forces conducted self-defence strikes in southern Iran today to protect our troops from threats posed by Iranian forces.”
He gave few details of the attacks and said only that the targets included missile launch sites and boats trying to “emplace mines”.
Despite the strikes, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Tuesday that a deal remained within reach. But he remained firm on the Strait of Hormuz, the key oil and gas shipping route which Iran is seeking to control.
“There were some talks going on in Qatar today, so we’ll see if we can make progress. I think it’s a lot of talking back and forth going on about specific language in the initial document, so it’ll take a few days,” Rubio told reporters, during a visit to India.
He said the strait was “going to be open one way or the other,” adding: “What’s happening there is unlawful, it’s illegal, it’s unsustainable for the world, it’s unacceptable.”
Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump is set to hold a rare cabinet meeting at the Camp David presidential retreat as Iran talks near a critical point, a White House official told AFP.
The New York Post reported that Iran was set to dominate the meeting, which was expected to be attended by all cabinet members.
Doha talks
Iranian and US officials have indicated that recent indirect talks made progress on a memorandum of understanding, or initial deal, that would lead to further negotiations over a final agreement.
Iran’s top negotiator, Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, its foreign minister and its central bank governor were in Doha on Monday for talks with Qatar’s prime minister on a potential deal, an official briefed on the visit said.
Qalibaf returned to Iran after seeking agreement on the release of around $24 billion of frozen Iranian funds as part of the memorandum of understanding, Iranian media reported.
Iran’s Fars news agency cited a source saying that the unfreezing of the funds was the last serious sticking point for the memorandum of understanding to be finalised.
According to Iranian sources, an initial deal would cover ending the war on all fronts, establishing a 30-day framework for restarting movement through the Strait of Hormuz, and possibly providing some financial relief — with more complex issues such as Iran’s nuclear programme to be negotiated in a second phase.
Iran has been letting some ships through the strait, giving preference to vessels linked to countries with which it has alliances or close ties, and striking government-to-government agreements, Reuters has reported.
Trump has said his key aim in the war is to prevent Iran from developing a nuclear weapon with its highly enriched uranium. Tehran denies any such plans.
Published in Dawn, May 27th, 2026
