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US Intercepts Fresh Iranian Attacks as Peace Talks Stall.

watchlist :: 1hr ago :: source - bloomberg

By Jennifer A. Dlouhy, Arsalan Shahla and Sara Gharaibeh

(Bloomberg) -- US and Iranian forces continued to trade fresh attacks, after a week that saw the worst flare-up in tensions since the shaky ceasefire started and little progress toward an interim peace deal.


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US Central Command shot down two Iranian one-way attack drones that threatened international maritime traffic in the Strait of Hormuz, it said a statement posted on social media Sunday. There were no reports of damage.

On Friday, six ballistic missiles fired at Bahrain and Kuwait were intercepted and another failed to reach their intended target, hours after four unmanned craft headed to Hormuz were shot down, Centcom said. It added the US military struck Iranian coastal surveillance radar sites in Goruk and on Qeshm Island in return.

In Washington, the Trump administration is floating a plan to steer Iranian assets in the US toward helping US allies in the Persian Gulf rebuild from damage inflicted by Tehran and to repair any future destruction.

With negotiations for ending the war bogged down over Tehran’s insistence on the release of $24 billion in frozen Iranian financial assets, the approach risks further chilling talks on a truce extension, reopening the Strait of Hormuz and future talks over Iran’s nuclear program.

The escalation in missile fire comes as Washington and Tehran fail to make headway in negotiations. Several sticking points remain besides the assets, including a parallel ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon.

Pakistan’s Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi arrived in Tehran on Saturday to deliver a message from army chief Asim Munir to Iranian Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei, the semi-official Iranian Students’ News Agency reported.

US President Donald Trump, who has insisted for months that Iran was near its breaking point, conceded Friday that the country retains some missile and drone capacity. In an interview with NBC News, he said about 21% to 22% of Tehran’s missile arsenal remains.

“It’s a lot of missiles, but it’s not what it was when we first attacked,” he told the television network during a visit to Wisconsin.

Earlier Friday, he told reporters the US is “having great success with Iran,” and “they’re in no position to have a nuclear weapon.”

The ceasefire saw its biggest test on Wednesday, when Iranian strikes killed one person at Kuwait’s main airport and injured dozens. Bahrain was also attacked and the US struck an oil tanker headed to the Islamic Republic. Kuwait, a staunch US ally, has been one of Tehran’s main targets during the truce agreed in early April.

Fighting between Israeli troops and the Tehran-backed Hezbollah militia continued on Saturday. Hezbollah earlier this week rejected a US-brokered ceasefire that had been announced by the State Department just hours before.

Iran has demanded a ceasefire in Lebanon before an accord can be reached with the US. A military adviser to Iran Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei told CNN that “the ball is in Trump’s court” when it comes to a deal.

Trump is under pressure to reach an agreement that allows for a normalization of shipping transit through the crucial Hormuz chokepoint, whose shuttering since the start of the war led oil prices to spike and prompted fears of an inflationary wave. The rising cost of fuel, a sensitive topic for American voters, threatens to punish Trump’s Republican party at midterm elections due in months.

The president again downplayed the higher cost of oil on Friday. “People thought it was going to be a lot worse,” he told reporters. “Today I looked at $96 a barrel, people thought that was going to be $300 a barrel.”

West Texas Intermediate crude ended the week above $90 a barrel and global benchmark Brent closed near $93. While contracts have eased from earlier peaks since the war began on Feb. 28, they remain significantly above levels before the conflict.

--With assistance from John Harney, Derek Wallbank and Veena Ali-Khan.

(Updates with new attacks in second paragraph.)

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