US, Iran trade new attacks amid talks: Here’s what we know

EXPLAINERWashington and Tehran are attacking each other despite a ceasefire that came into effect on April 8.An anti-US billboard depicting President Donald Trump and the Strait of Hormuz rises over a square in Tehran, Iran [File: Majid Asgaripour/WANA via Reuters]Published On 1 Jun 2026United States President Donald Trump says he is close to achieving a “very good deal” with Iran, but Washington and Tehran have been engaged in a new exchange of fire, dimming hopes of finalising a deal to end the war.Late on Sunday in a post on X, the US military’s Central Command (CENTCOM) said it struck Iranian military sites over the weekend, and on Monday, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said it retaliated by targetting a US base in the Gulf region.Recommended Stories list of 3 itemslist 1 of 3Satellite imagery shows erasure of southern Gaza as Israel expands controllist 2 of 3Israeli forces advance beyond the Litani River: How significant is it?list 3 of 3What are the chances for the Iran-US ‘Declaration of Principles’?end of listWhile a ceasefire has been in place between the US and Iran since April 8, the warring parties have continued to sporadically attack each others’ military assets.Moreover, Iran’s de facto blockade of the Strait of Hormuz and a naval blockade of Iranian ports by the Trump administration has heightened tensions.As diplomacy aimed at a more durable peace agreement between the two countries drags on, here’s what we know about the latest attacks between the US and Iran:What sites has the US attacked?In its X post, CENTCOM said it carried out strikes on Iranian radar and drone sites in the city of Goruk and the island of Qeshm over the weekend.“The measured and deliberate strikes occurred on Saturday and Sunday in response to aggressive Iranian actions that included the shootdown of a US MQ-1 drone that was operating over international waters,” the command responsible for US military operations in the Middle East said.“US fighter aircraft swiftly responded by eliminating Iranian air defenses, a ground control station, and two one-way attack drones that posed clear threats to ships transiting regional waters,” CENTCOM added.What sites has Iran targeted?In response to Washington’s attacks, the IRGC said on Monday that it struck a US airbase that was used for an attack on a telecommunications tower in southern Iran, according to Iran’s semiofficial Fars News Agency.“Following the aggression of the US army on a communication tower on Sirik Island in Hormozgan Province an hour ago, the IRGC Aerospace Force fighters targeted the airbase where the aggression originated and the predicted targets were destroyed,” the report said.The IRGC has not specified the location of the facility.Separately, air defences in Kuwait, where a major US base is located, intercepted missile and drone attacks on Monday, the state news agency KUNA reported without providing details.Moreover, in a post late on Sunday on Facebook, a senior official in the Iranian Kurdish party Komala accused the IRGC of attacking its base in northern Iraq’s Erbil province.“As Iran’s Islamic Republic continues its attacks against Komala, tonight at 22:40 (17:40 GMT), two missiles struck the headquarters of the Kurdistan Toilers Party (Komala) in Alana Valley,” Amjad Hussein Panahi said.“Since the start of its war with the United States and Israel, the Islamic Republic of Iran has targeted Komala’s bases and headquarters with more than 81 missiles and drones,” he added.According to the Rudaw Media Network, a broadcaster in northern Iraq’s semiautonomous Kurdish region, the Kurdistan Freedom Party (PAK), another Iranian Kurdish opposition group based in the Iraqi region, said on Sunday that one of its bases near Erbil was also struck by an Iranian missile.Since the US and Israel began their war on Iran on February 28, Tehran has retaliated by striking US military bases in the Gulf region and launching strikes on Israel and on Kurdish groups in northern Iraq.Iran’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei said on Monday that Tehran has a right to carry out retaliatory strikes on regional “bases and assets” used to wage attacks against it after Kuwait reported attacks.“States have an established legal obligation not to allow their territory or assets to be used for invading other countries,” Baghaei said a post on X.The Iranian official also accused the European Union of displaying “selective moral outrage” in its response, saying a statement by the EU condemning Iran for “exercising its right to self-defence against US aggression launched from bases in neighbouring countries” was “hypocritical and reckless”.Baghaei did not specify which EU statement he was referring to, but the bloc’s diplomatic service had criticised reported Iranian attacks on Kuwait in a statement several days ago, saying they violate Kuwait’s sovereignty and “pose a serious threat to regional security and stability”.Have they attacked each other during the ceasefire?The US and Iran have continued attacking each other despite the ceasefire.The ceasefire faced near-immediate strain when Kuwait said seven drones entered its airspace on April 10, two days after it had begun. It accused Iran and allied armed groups of the attacks.Four days into the ceasefire and after the collapse of direct talks in Islamabad, the US announced a naval blockade targeting maritime traffic entering and leaving Iranian ports, heightening tensions.On April 18, Iranian forces fired on two Indian ships in the Strait of Hormuz that it said did not have permission to pass through the waterway. Maritime tensions escalated further on April 20 when US forces captured an Iranian container ship near the Gulf in a move Iran described as an “act of piracy“.On April 22, the IRGC fired on three ships in the strait and captured two foreign container vessels, the Panama-flagged MSC Francesca and the Liberian-flagged Epaminondas, saying they lacked authorisation to transit the strait.Then on May 4, the United Arab Emirates accused Iran of launching missiles and drones at the country, triggering a fire at an oil refinery in Fujairah and wounding three Indian nationals.On May 17, a drone strike sparked a fire on the perimeter of the Barakah Nuclear Energy Plant in the UAE and raised new concerns over a potential new regional escalation.The UAE did not specifically blame Iran but said the drones ⁠had been launched from its “western border”. On the same day, Saudi Arabia also said it intercepted three drones fired from Iraqi airspace but did not specify where the drones were launched from.On May 28, CENTCOM said its forces shot down five Iranian attack drones and struck a ground control station in the port city of Bandar Abbas that was about to launch a sixth. Kuwaiti forces then intercepted a ballistic missile fired towards the country.The IRGC said it targeted the US base responsible for the Bandar Abbas attack and any repeat would lead to a “more decisive response”, the country’s semiofficial Tasnim News Agency reported.What’s the latest on the ceasefire talks?In a late night social media post, Trump did not mention the latest hostilities between Washington and Tehran but said Iran “really wants to make a good deal”. So far, according to US media reports, Trump has sought to change several terms of a proposal to end the US-Israel war on Iran.On Sunday, The New York Times reported that Trump’s latest changes involved toughening the terms of the proposed deal and the US had sent the new framework back to be considered by Iran.The Axios news website reported that Trump wanted to reinforce multiple points of the deal that he felt were important, such as what to do with Iran’s nuclear material.In a Truth Social post on Sunday, Trump hit back at critics of his handling of the conflict.“Just sit back and relax, it will all work out well in the end – It always does!” he wrote.Trump has said his priorities for any deal include Iran agreeing to never develop nuclear weapons and to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, through which about 20 percent of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas supplies transited before the war.Tehran has said repeatedly that it does not intend to build nuclear weapons. In March 2025, Tulsi Gabbard, then the US director of national intelligence, testified to Congress that Washington “continues to assess that Iran is not building a nuclear weapon”.On Saturday, the Iranian military’s Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters reasserted the country’s control over the strait, warning that foreign commercial and military vessels would be targeted if they do not comply with regulations governing passage through the strategic waterway.Iran’s ability to close the Strait of Hormuz represents a more usable and powerful deterrent than a nuclear weapon, according to Colin Clarke, executive director of the Soufan Center.“The Iranians know this is a winning card,” Clarke told Al Jazeera. “They can shut down the global economy by attacking the Gulf states, by closing the strait with mines and shoulder-fired missiles.”Clarke said the scenario has been war-gamed extensively and its implications were well understood inside the US national security establishment. “There are probably warehouses full of papers and reports on this exact scenario, laying out the implications, the second- and third-order effects and how to avoid them.”He added that the strait gives Tehran a form of leverage that carries none of the risks of using nuclear weapons. “If you use a nuclear weapon, you’re entering entirely different territory. But closing down the strait? They can do that ad infinitum.”Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, however, told the country’s IRNA news agency on Sunday that “dialogue and an exchange of messages are ongoing” with the US.“It is not possible to judge until a clear conclusion is reached,” Araghchi said amid the recent speculation about the negotiations.“Everything that is being said now is speculation and should not be taken seriously until it is certain.”Iran’s chief negotiator had earlier in the day said Tehran would not agree to any deal that does not secure full Iranian rights.“There is no trust in the ⁠enemy’s words and ⁠promises. Our only criterion is to achieve tangible results ⁠before we fulfil our ⁠commitments in ⁠return,” Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf said after taking his oath as ‌the re-elected speaker of parliament.Broken agreements and military strikes in the middle of talks have left Iran with no confidence in the US as a negotiating partner, according to Negar Mortazavi, senior fellow at the Washington, DC-based Center for International Policy.“I was talking to Iranian sources, and they said, ‘We go to these talks every time with our finger on the trigger, expecting bombs to fall from the sky,’” Mortazavi told Al Jazeera.She said the erosion of trust came through a series of US actions that amounted to declarations of war, including the assassination of General Qassem Soleimani in 2020, the strikes during last year’s nuclear negotiations and the current conflict.“Two wars down, [there has been] lots of destruction in the region, no achievement and the goalposts keep moving,” Mortazavi added.