Rubio says Iran deal could take days after US forces launch new attacks

US forces say they hit Iranian missile sites and boats as the Iranian delegation in Qatar holds talks on extending the ceasefire.United States Secretary of State Marco Rubio has said a potential deal to end the Iran" class="entity-link entity-event" data-entity-id="38678" data-entity-type="event">US-Israel war on Iran could “take a few days” to be agreed, after US forces claimed to have struck Iranian missile sites and boats laying mines in southern Iran amid talks in Qatar.“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 on Tuesday in Jaipur during a visit to India.Recommended Stories list of 3 itemslist 1 of 3Israel escalates Gaza attacks as Netanyahu stalls ceasefire for pollslist 2 of 3Trump dangles normalisation amid pro-Israel criticism of possible Iran deallist 3 of 3In Lebanon, everything and nothing has changed since 2000end of list“The president’s expressed his desire to make it. He’s either going to make a good deal or no deal,” he said. Rubio told reporters that “the straits have to be open”.“They’re going to be open one way or the other, so they need to be open. What’s happening there is unlawful, it’s illegal, it’s unsustainable for the world, it’s unacceptable.”Earlier, the Central Command (CENTCOM) said US forces attacked missile sites in southern Iran and boats trying to lay mines on Monday, putting further strain on an already fragile ceasefire that has been in place since early April.“US forces conducted self-defence strikes in southern Iran today to protect our troops from threats posed by Iranian forces,” Tim Hawkins, a CENTCOM spokesman, said in a statement.It gave no details of the attacks and only said the targets included missile launch sites and boats trying to “emplace mines”.Iran’s state broadcaster IRIB reported several loud explosions were heard in the vicinity of Bandar Abbas at around midnight local time (20:30 GMT on Monday).