{"id":467460,"date":"2026-05-26T08:18:11","date_gmt":"2026-05-26T08:18:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/467460\/"},"modified":"2026-05-26T08:18:11","modified_gmt":"2026-05-26T08:18:11","slug":"us-strikes-iranian-missile-sites-as-peace-talks-continue-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/467460\/","title":{"rendered":"US strikes Iranian missile sites as peace talks continue \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

US secretary of state Marco Rubio<\/a> has said negotiating a deal with Iran <\/a>could \u201ctake a few days,\u201d quashing hopes for an imminent end to the conflict a day after US \u200cforces conducted strikes in southern Iran.<\/p>\n

Describing the strikes against targets including boats attempting to lay mines and missile launch sites as defensive, Rubio said the Strait of Hormuz has to be open \u201cone way or the \u200bother.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe straits have to be open, they\u2019re going to be open one way or the other, so they need to be open,\u201d he told reporters on his plane in Jaipur, India. <\/p>\n

Despite a ceasefire in place since early April, US Central Command said in a statement on Monday it had carried out fresh strikes designed \u201cto protect our troops from threats posed by Iranian forces.\u201d<\/p>\n

Iran said on Monday it had downed a \u201chostile\u201d stealth \u200bdrone using a new air defence system, Iranian news agencies reported, without saying where it had come from. <\/p>\n

The US attacks came as Iran\u2019s top negotiator and its foreign minister were in Doha for talks with Qatar\u2019s prime minister \u2060on a potential deal with the US to end the three-month-old war,<\/a> an official briefed on the visit said.<\/p>\n

Rubio told reporters in New Delhi earlier that \u200cthe \u200cUS would \u200bgive diplomacy every chance to succeed before considering whether to deal with Iran in \u201canother way\u201d.<\/p>\n

He said there was a \u201cpretty solid thing on the table,\u201d referring to talks over reopening the strait and a \u201cvery real, significant, time-limited negotiation on the nuclear matter.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a lengthy post \u2060on Truth Social on Monday, US president Donald Trump <\/a>said talks with \u200bIran were going \u201cnicely\u201d, but warned of fresh attacks if they failed. It \u201cwill only be a \u200bGreat Deal for all, or no Deal at all,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n

\"AA Hizbullah supporter carries a picture of the group’s late Hllah leader Hassan Nasrallah during a gathering to mark Resistance and Liberation Day in the al-Kafaat neighborhood of Beirut’s southern suburbs, Lebanon. The gathering commemorates the withdrawal of the Israeli military from southern Lebanon on May 25th, 2000, ending a 22-year occupation. Photograph: Wael Hamzeh\/EPA <\/p>\n

In another indication of the region\u2019s tensions, Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu said on Monday Israel would intensify strikes against the \u200cIran-backed Hizbullah <\/a>militia in Lebanon<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Israel\u2019s<\/a> military soon thereafter said it was \u200battacking Hizbullah <\/a>infrastructure in Lebanon\u2019s eastern Bekaa Valley and other areas.<\/p>\n

Israel and Lebanon agreed to a ceasefire in mid-April, but Israel has continued air strikes it says are acts of \u2060self-defence against Hizbullah, which was not party to the truce.<\/p>\n

The official \u2060briefed on the Iranians\u2019 Doha visit said \u200bthe discussions focused on the Strait of Hormuz and Iran\u2019s stockpile of highly enriched uranium, while Iran\u2019s central bank governor attended to discuss the potential release of frozen Iranian funds as part of a final deal.<\/p>\n

Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei said earlier that nuclear issues would only be negotiated after the framework accord was agreed.<\/p>\n

Trump has said his key aim in the war is to prevent Iran from developing a nuclear weapon with its highly enriched uranium. Tehran has consistently denied it has plans to do that.<\/p>\n

Baghaei said the potential Iran deal contained no specific details on management of the Strait of Hormuz, through which about a fifth of the world\u2019s oil and liquefied natural gas usually flows.<\/p>\n

Iran would not charge tolls for ships to pass through but there would be a cost for \u200cservices offered such as navigation and steps \u2060to protect the environment, he said, under a protocol to be agreed with Oman, which lies on the opposite shore of the waterway. <\/p>\n

Citing a Middle East diplomatic source, Japan\u2019s Nikkei newspaper reported the US and Iran were discussing a plan to open the strait about 30 days after reaching a deal \u200cto end hostilities.<\/p>\n

Since the US and Israel launched strikes on Iran on February 28th, only a few dozen vessels have been passing through the Strait of Hormuz each day, compared with 125 to 140 daily previously.<\/p>\n

The stand-off \u200bhas caused a spike in oil prices and driven up the costs of fuel, fertiliser and food. In early Asian trade \u200bon Tuesday, US West Texas Intermediate crude was up slightly from Monday\u2019s last traded price but down 5.5 per cent from Friday\u2019s close. \u2013 Reuters<\/p>\n

(c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"US secretary of state Marco Rubio has said negotiating a deal with Iran could \u201ctake a few days,\u201d…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":467461,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[10748,969,42,123265,11829,3410,150432,14396,20878,43,40,38,41,39,90],"class_list":["post-467460","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-binyamin-netanyahu","tag-donald-trump","tag-headlines","tag-hizbullah","tag-iran","tag-israel","tag-israel-iran-conflict","tag-lebanon","tag-marco-rubio","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-us"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/467460","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=467460"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/467460\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/467461"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=467460"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=467460"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=467460"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}