U.S. forces struck a drone ground-control station and shot down four Iranian one-way attack drones near the port city of Bandar Abbas early Thursday, and Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said it retaliated hours later by hitting a U.S. air base, the third direct military exchange since the late-February ceasefire and the most serious blow yet to talks aimed at reopening the Strait of Hormuz.
The clash, which drew air defenses in Kuwait into action and pushed Brent crude up about 3 percent to $97.16 a barrel, followed President Trump's public rejection of an Iranian state-TV report that a draft U.S.-Iran framework existed to restore commercial traffic through the strait to prewar levels within a month. Negotiators mediated by Pakistan and Qatar had appeared close to a deal over the weekend; by Wednesday afternoon Trump told a Cabinet meeting that Iran was "negotiating on fumes," and overnight the two militaries were firing at each other again.
The new exchange
A U.S. official told NBC News and CBS News that American forces hit the ground-control station because a fifth Iranian drone was about to launch from it and that the drones threatened U.S. troops and commercial shipping near the waterway. "These actions were measured, purely defensive, and intended to maintain the ceasefire," the official said. It was the second U.S. strike inside Iran in three days, after Tuesday's CENTCOM operation against missile launchers and small boats accused of trying to lay mines near the strait.
The IRGC said in a statement carried by Iran's Tasnim and IRIB news agencies that "the U.S. air base identified as the source of the attack was targeted" at 4:50 a.m. local time and warned that any further American action would draw a "more decisive" response. Iran did not name the base. Within hours the Kuwaiti army said its air defenses were responding to "hostile missile and drone threats," and the U.S. Army later said an Iranian ballistic missile aimed at Kuwait had been "successfully intercepted," Al Jazeera reported. Kuwait hosts a U.S. air base that Iranian-aligned forces have struck before in the three-month war.
The draft deal Trump rejected
Iranian state television reported a day earlier that Tehran had obtained an "unofficial" framework under which the United States would lift its naval blockade and pull forces from Iran's vicinity, while Iran would restore Hormuz shipping to prewar levels within 30 days and jointly manage traffic with Oman. Trump told reporters at the Cabinet meeting that no single country would run the waterway. "The strait is going to be open to everybody," he said. "Nobody is going to control it."
He also turned on Muscat, a Gulf Cooperation Council member with which Washington has a free-trade agreement. "Oman will behave just like everybody else or we’ll have to blow them up," Trump said. The State Department later reposted the clip on X. Iran's foreign ministry spokesman, Esmail Baghaei, called the U.S. strikes a "blatant violation" of international law and the ceasefire, Iran's Mehr news agency reported.
Pressure on prices
Oil markets, which fell more than 5 percent Wednesday on hopes of a deal, reversed sharply. Brent rose about 3 percent to $97.16 a barrel and West Texas Intermediate climbed about 3 percent to $91.43, CNBC reported. Citi told clients late Wednesday that the prolonged run-up was beginning to spill into broader inflation through "second round effects," pushing some central banks to lean more hawkish. The Treasury Department on Wednesday night sanctioned the Persian Gulf Strait Authority, the new Iranian agency that has proposed charging transit tolls of as much as $2 million a ship. "The Iranian military’s latest attempt to extort global maritime trade is proof that Economic Fury has left the regime desperate for cash," Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in a statement.
The counterpoint
The administration's framing of the draft deal as a fabrication and Tehran as a weakening party rests on Trump's claim that Iran is "negotiating on fumes." The president told the Cabinet meeting that "They want very much to make a deal," adding, "So far, they haven’t gotten there. We’re not satisfied with it, but we will be — either that or we’ll have to just finish the job." NBC News and Al Jazeera, by contrast, characterized the morning's American strikes as a "blatant violation" of the ceasefire in the words of Iran's foreign ministry, and Doug Bandow, a senior fellow at the libertarian Cato Institute, told Al Jazeera that the leverage runs the other way. "Trump is in a very difficult position," Bandow said. "He has inadvertently given Iran a very powerful weapon by closing the Strait of Hormuz, and he’s not willing to risk US ships to try to open it."
A Center for Strategic and International Studies analysis released Wednesday and provided to the Associated Press found U.S. forces fired more than 1,000 Tomahawk cruise missiles at Iran and will not fully restore the prewar inventory until late 2030, with Patriot and THAAD interceptor stocks not back to plan until 2029. The report said "the problem today isn't money; it's time."
Talks mediated by Pakistan and Qatar remain on the calendar. Trump said Wednesday the United States is not discussing easing sanctions, and the House is scheduled to take up a Democratic war-powers resolution on June 2 after Republican leaders pulled it last week.