Ceasefire talks between Iran and the US have ground to a halt just hours after the two sides traded strikes involving Tehran targeting American bases in Kuwait.
However, Tehran cited Israel’s latest aggression against Lebanon for it’s decision to suspend talks with the Trump administration, according to government-aligned media.
“Due to the continuation of the Zionist regime’s actions in Lebanon and given that Lebanon was one of the preconditions of the ceasefire and that this ceasefire has now been violated on all fronts … the Iranian negotiating team will suspend ‘talks and the exchange of texts through mediators’,” the state agency Tasnim reported.
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It came after US forces and Iran exchanged attacks during the weekend and into Monday.
The Washington Post reported that Tasnim’s post, which did not cite an official source, also claimed Iran and allied militant groups were prepared to fully close the Strait of Hormuz and activate additional pressure points. If Tehran followed through on these threats it would reflect a significant escalation in Iran’s negotiating posture.
The Post reported that US Central Command said its most recent strikes, carried out in the coastal city of Goruk and on Qeshm Island, targeted Iranian air defences, a ground control station and two attack drones that it said posed clear threats to ships in regional waters.
The American strikes followed Iran’s downing of a US drone which it said was operating over international waters at the time.
Both Goruk and Qeshm Island are strategic sites overlooking the strait, where Iran has sought to blockade most international shipping and the United States has been escorting commercial vessels through in defiance of Tehran’s closure.
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said on Monday it had targeted an air base used by the US in response to an attack on southern Iran.
It did not identify the base, but Kuwait activated air defences on Monday and denounced Iranian missile and drone attacks, which it said were undermining efforts to reduce tensions in the region.
Oil prices, which have risen sharply since the start of the war, gained more than 3 per cent on Monday after the strikes.
Tensions were also fuelled on Monday by Israel ordering troops to move further into Lebanon against Tehran-backed Hezbollah, in a conflict that was reignited by the US-Israeli war against Iran.
Tasnim’s report on the suspension of talks contradicted the relaxed tone of social media posts from Donald Trump on Sunday night.
In a late-night social media post, the US President did not mention the exchange of hostilities, repeating his assertion that Iran “really wants to make a deal”.
