DUBAI\u00a0\u2014\u00a0Iran has sent its response to the latest U.S. ceasefire proposal to Pakistani mediators and wants negotiations to focus on permanently ending the war, Iran\u2019s state-run media said Sunday.<\/p>\n
State TV said Iran seeks to end the war on all fronts, including in Lebanon, and ensure the security of shipping. Washington\u2019s latest proposal had addressed a deal to end the war, reopen the Strait of Hormuz and roll back Iran\u2019s nuclear program, an issue that Tehran would rather discuss later.<\/p>\n
There was no immediate comment from the White House about Iran\u2019s reply.<\/p>\n
President Trump is giving diplomacy \u201cevery chance we possibly can before going back to hostilities,\u201d the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Mike Waltz, told ABC.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, the fragile ceasefire was again tested Sunday when a drone ignited a small fire on a ship off Qatar, while the United Arab Emirates and Kuwait reported drones entering their airspace. The UAE blamed Iran for the attack there. No casualties were reported and no one immediately claimed responsibility.<\/p>\n
The Qatari Foreign Ministry called it a \u201cdangerous and unacceptable escalation that threatens the security and safety of maritime trade routes and vital supplies in the region.\u201d<\/p>\n
Iran and armed allied groups have used drones to carry out hundreds of strikes since the war began with U.S. and Israeli attacks on Feb. 28.<\/p>\n
Nuclear issues<\/p>\n
Trump has reiterated threats to resume full-scale bombing if Iran does not accept an agreement to reopen the strait and roll back its nuclear program. Iran has mostly blocked the strategic waterway key to the global flow of oil since the war began, rattling world markets.<\/p>\n
The U.S. in turn has imposed a blockade of Iranian ports. On Friday, the U.S. struck two Iranian oil tankers that it said were trying to breach the blockade. Iran\u2019s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps navy has reiterated its warning that any attack on Iranian oil tankers or commercial vessels would be met with a \u201cheavy assault\u201d on one of the U.S. bases in the region and enemy ships.<\/p>\n
Another sticking point in negotiations is the fate of Iran\u2019s highly enriched uranium. The United Nations nuclear agency says Iran has more than 970 pounds of uranium that is enriched up to 60% purity, a short, technical step from weapons-grade levels.<\/p>\n
In an interview with state media posted late Saturday, a spokesman for Iran\u2019s military said its forces were on \u201cfull readiness\u201d to protect nuclear sites where uranium is stored.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe considered it possible that they might intend to steal it through infiltration operations or heliborne operations,\u201d Brig. Gen. Akrami Nia told the IRNA news agency.<\/p>\n
The majority of Iran\u2019s highly enriched uranium is probably at its Isfahan nuclear complex, International Atomic Energy Agency Director-General Rafael Mariano Grossi told the Associated Press last month. The facility was bombarded by U.S.-Israeli airstrikes in the 12-day war last year and faced less intense attacks this year.<\/p>\n
Pakistan, which oversaw face-to-face talks between the U.S. and Iran last month, continues to pursue mediation. In rare public comments, Pakistani army chief Field Marshal Asim Munir said Islamabad remains committed to helping end the conflict. And Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif spoke by phone with Qatari counterpart Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani.<\/p>\n
Gulf Arab nations targeted<\/p>\n
The UAE\u2019s Defense Ministry said it shot down two drones and blamed the attack on Iran.<\/p>\n
In Kuwait, Defense Ministry spokesman Brig. Gen. Saud Abdulaziz Al Otaibi said hostile drones entered Kuwait\u2019s airspace early Sunday and forces responded \u201cin accordance with established procedures.\u201d The ministry did not say where the drones came from.<\/p>\n
The Qatari Defense Ministry said a drone targeted a commercial ship coming from Abu Dhabi into a southern port, setting a small fire that was extinguished. The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations Center said the attack happened 23 nautical miles northeast of Qatar\u2019s capital, Doha. It provided no details about the ship\u2019s owner or origin, and there was no claim of responsibility.<\/p>\n
There have been several attacks against ships in the Persian Gulf over the last week.<\/p>\n
South Korea announced initial findings from a investigation that said two unidentified airborne objects struck the stern of the South Korean-operated vessel HMM NAMU about one minute apart while it was anchored in the Strait of Hormuz last week, causing an explosion and fire. A Foreign Ministry spokesperson said officials have yet to determine who was responsible.<\/p>\n
Gambrell and Magdy write for the Associated Press and reported from Dubai and Cairo, respectively. AP writers Munir Ahmed in Islamabad, Melanie Lidman in Tel Aviv, Tong-hyung Kim in Seoul, Julia Frankel in Jerusalem and Josh Boak in Washington contributed to this report. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"DUBAI\u00a0\u2014\u00a0Iran has sent its response to the latest U.S. ceasefire proposal to Pakistani mediators and wants negotiations to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":106920,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[84,711,34804,34,15018,35,722,20453,271,4738,36978,1219,14800,5556,36],"class_list":{"0":"post-106919","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-iran","8":"tag-attack","9":"tag-drone","10":"tag-gulf-nation","11":"tag-iran","12":"tag-islamabad","13":"tag-kuwait","14":"tag-president-trump","15":"tag-proposal","16":"tag-qatar","17":"tag-ship","18":"tag-small-fire","19":"tag-strait","20":"tag-u-s-ambassador","21":"tag-uranium","22":"tag-war"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@iran\/116551247758647288","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106919","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=106919"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106919\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/106920"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=106919"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=106919"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=106919"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}