US military strikes Iran's Qeshm port and Bandar Abbas

The US ‌military on Thursday carried out ​strikes ⁠on Iran's Qeshm ‌port and ‌Bandar Abbas, a Fox News reporter said in ‌a post on X, ⁠citing a senior US official.

The official said the strikes do not mean a restarting of the ​war or an end ‌to the ceasefire announced on April 7, according to ⁠the post.

The strikes took place as the US ​awaited ‌Iran's response to a ‌US proposal that would halt fighting between the ‌two countries but ‌leave the ⁠most contentious issues, ‌such as Iran's nuclear program, unresolved for now.

Iran accused the United States of violating a ‌ceasefire by targeting two ​ships ⁠at the Strait ‌of Hormuz and attacking ‌civilian areas, the country's top joint military command ‌said early on Friday.

The US ⁠targeted "an Iranian oil tanker traveling from Iran's coastal waters near Jask toward the Strait of Hormuz, as well ​as another vessel entering the ‌Strait of Hormuz near the Emirati port of Fujairah," ⁠a spokesperson for Iran's Khatam Al-Anbiya Central Headquarters said in ​a ‌statement carried by state media.

"At ‌the same time, with the cooperation of some regional countries, ‌they carried ‌out air ⁠attacks on civilian ‌areas along the coasts of Bandar Khamir, Sirik, ⁠and Qeshm Island."

President Donald Trump said on Thursday US forces dealt "great damage" to Iranian targets after three American naval destroyers came under fire, but was nonetheless still open to a deal with Tehran.

"There was no damage done to the three Destroyers, but great damage done to the Iranian attackers," he said on his Truth Social platform, colorfully describing drones falling "like a butterfly dropping to its grave!"

"We'll knock them out a lot harder, and a lot more violently, in the future, if they don't get their Deal signed, FAST!" he added.

The violence threatened to unravel a fragile truce in effect since April 8 that brought an end to weeks of US-Israeli attacks on the Islamic republic, which has retaliated with strikes across the Middle East and by blocking the strait, a vital route for oil and gas shipments.

Any agreement between the United States and Iran could also help lower tensions in Lebanon, where a separate truce was under renewed strain after an Israeli strike on southern Beirut killed a commander from Hizbollah on Wednesday.

A US State Department official confirmed on Thursday that the new Israel-Lebanon talks would take place on May 14 and 15.

It will be the third meeting in recent months between the two countries, which have technically been at war for decades and have no diplomatic relations. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Tuesday that a peace deal between the two sides was "eminently achievable," insisting Hizbollah was the sticking point, rather than any issue between the two governments.

Lebanon was drawn into the Middle East war when Hizbollah fired rockets at Israel in retaliation for the killing of Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Agencies