US and Iranian negotiators reach tentative deal to extend ceasefire and launch nuclear talks

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — U.S. and Iranian negotiators reached a tentative agreement Thursday to extend the ceasefire in the 3-month-old war by 60 days and launch talks on Iran’s nuclear program, according to a U.S. official familiar with the matter.

The official, who was not authorized to comment publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity, said President Donald Trump still needs to sign off on the emerging memorandum of understanding.

Iran did not immediately confirm any tentative deal with the United States.

The tentative agreement worked out by the two sides comes at a moment when the fragile ceasefire between the U.S. and Iran appeared to be wavering.

The U.S. military earlier on Thursday accused Iran of violating the ceasefire after Kuwait reported coming under attack following an American strike against the Islamic Republic. It was the latest flare-up of fighting to threaten ongoing negotiations to end the war.

Details of the tentative agreement were first reported by the news outlet Axios.

U.S. Central Command said Kuwait intercepted missiles fired from Iran late Wednesday, and military officials called the attack on one of America’s top allies in the Persian Gulf an “egregious ceasefire violation.”

Kuwait had earlier announced an attack on its territory, and Iran said it had retaliated for strikes earlier in the week by firing on a U.S. base in an Gulf state it did not name. The Kuwaiti Foreign Ministry condemned Iran for what it called “blatant aggression.”

The exchange unfolded after U.S. officials said late Wednesday in Washington that American forces launched more strikes on Iran, shooting down four one-way attack drones that posed a threat around the Strait of Hormuz and hitting an Iranian ground-control station in Bandar Abbas that was about to launch a fifth drone.

Washington and Tehran have repeatedly accused each other of violating the seven-week ceasefire and have traded strikes throughout the week. But they have not returned to full-scale hostilities and have kept negotiating. Trump has insisted he’s confident that his administration is making headway in the talks.

On Monday, the U.S. said it conducted what the Pentagon called “self-defense” strikes on missile launch sites and minelaying boats in southern Iran.
After the latest American strikes, Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard acknowledged the attack around Bandar Abbas International Airport. The Iranian force said via the state-run IRNA news agency that it launched a retaliatory attack on the air base that launched the assaults, without specifying whether the retaliation targeted Kuwait, which is home to U.S. Army Central’s forward headquarters, air bases and a naval base.

Kuwait’s military announced that its air-defense systems intercepted incoming missiles and drones on Thursday, without detailing what had been targeted. Kuwait repeatedly came under fire from Iran and Iranian-backed Shiite militias in Iraq before the April ceasefire began.

The announcement comes as the Middle East is on the edge and talks to end the war remain in flux.

Trump is looking for an agreement that will reopen the strait, through which about a fifth of all traded oil and natural gas once passed. He also is seeking to get Iran to give up its stockpile of highly enriched uranium. The war has been unpopular in the U.S., and Iran’s closure of the strait has sent oil prices skyrocketing, driving up fuel prices around the world.

The Islamic Republic wants economic sanctions to be lifted and frozen assets to be released to aid its shattered economy. Iran also insists that any deal must include an end to Israel’s military operations in Lebanon against the Iranian-backed militant group Hezbollah.

A U.S.-brokered ceasefire went into effect in Lebanon in mid-April, and Lebanese and Israeli military officials are set to hold their first security talks Friday in Washington. But the ceasefire has been tested, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned Monday that his country was stepping up attacks after Hezbollah fired fiber-optic exploding drones that struck Israeli troops in Lebanon and reached some of Israel’s northern border towns.

Tensions deepened Thursday as Israel conducted an airstrike on a southern suburb of the capital, Beirut, and other strikes in the southern coastal city of Tyre. At least 14 people were killed across the country’s south.
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Toropin contributed from Washington and Metz from Ramallah, West Bank.