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Opening summary: US attacks Iranian missile sites and boats

Welcome to the Guardian’s continuing live coverage of the crisis in the Middle East.

US forces attacked missile sites in southern Iran and boats trying to lay mines on Monday, US Central Command said, as top Iranian negotiators arrived in Doha for talks to end the war.

“US forces conducted self-defence strikes in southern Iran today to protect our troops from threats posed by Iranian forces,” a Centcom spokesperson said. The statement gave no details of the attacks and said only that the targets included missile launch sites and boats trying to “emplace mines”.

The strikes threatened an already fragile ceasefire that began on 8 April and came as Iran’s top negotiator and its foreign minister were in Doha for talks with Qatar’s prime minister over the potential deal to end the war, Reuters quoted an official as saying.

Meanwhile, Donald Trump said talks with Iran were going “nicely” but warned of fresh attacks if they failed. It “will only be a Great Deal for all, or no Deal at all”, the US president said on social media.

The US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, who is in India, said on Tuesday that the strait of Hormuz had to be opened “one way or the other”.

“What’s happening there is unlawful, it’s illegal, it’s unsustainable for the world, it’s unacceptable,” he was quoted as telling reporters. Rubio said the negotiating language of the deal with Iran could “take a few days”.

Marco Rubio speaking to reporters onboard his plane at Jaipur international airport in India. Photograph: Julia Demaree Nikhinson/Reuters

In other developments:

Trump said the enriched uranium held by Iran could be destroyed inside the country, in a process overseen by an international nuclear agency. Experts said his announcement could amount to a major concession to Tehran.
Trump also said any deal to end the war with Iran should require certain countries in the region – Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Egypt, Jordan, Turkey and Pakistan – to sign up to the Abraham accords. The agreements aimed at normalising relations with Israel were brokered by the US during Trump’s first term.
Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to “crush” Hezbollah in Lebanon, dealing another blow to hopes for a US-Iran deal. Tehran has demanded that any peace accord apply to the fighting in Lebanon as well.
Iranian foreign minister Abbas Araghchi praised Hezbollah for the Tehran-backed militant group’s ongoing resistance in Lebanon against Israel.

Key events

In Doha, the Qatari talks with Iran’s top negotiator and its foreign minister focused on the strait of Hormuz and Iran’s stockpile of highly enriched uranium, Reuters quoted an official as saying.

Iran’s central bank governor also attended to discuss the potential release of frozen Iranian funds as part of a final deal, said the unnamed official, who the news agency said was briefed on the trip.

The visit came after Washington and Tehran played down hopes for an imminent breakthrough on a peace deal to end the three-month-old war.

Iranian foreign ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei said earlier that nuclear issues would be negotiated only after the framework accord was agreed.

Returning to the Abraham Accords, Donald Trump’s call for other Middle Eastern countries to join the agreements aimed at normalising relations with Israel comes as the emerging Iran deal faces criticism from fellow Republicans who favour a harder line on Iran – and it could add new diplomatic complications to the negotiations.

Trump pointed to Saudi Arabia and Qatar as countries that should “immediately” sign on to the accords that the US brokered during Trump’s first term. Egypt, Jordan, Turkey and Pakistan should also sign up, he said, citing “all the work done by the United States to try and pull this very complex puzzle together”.

In 2020 the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain signed the agreements to establish formal relations with Israel, ending a decades-old taboo in Arab diplomacy.

The Associated Press reports that Trump has long wanted Saudi Arabia to join, but the kingdom maintains that any normalisation deal first requires establishing a clear path for Palestinian statehood. That’s also key for Pakistan, a key mediator between the US and Iran.

Islamabad-based analyst Syed Mohammad Ali said Pakistan’s position on Israel remained unchanged despite Trump’s proposal.

Masood Khan, Pakistan’s former ambassador to the US, said it remained to be seen how workable the proposal might be for the countries on Trump’s list, saying:

The invocation of the Abraham Accords at this stage gives an altogether new dimension to the diplomatic and mediatory processes because this issue was not on the agenda.”

Analysis: Trump’s deal outline sparks alarm in Israel

Emma Graham-Harrison

At the beginning of the war Israel’s security elite warned that Benjamin Netanyahu risked sacrificing the country’s most vital foreign policy asset, bi-partisan support in the United States, in pursuit of regime change in Iran and possibly a boost in an election due by October.

Almost three months on, US opinion polls indicate that a body blow to a decades-old legacy may be the conflict’s most enduring legacy for Israel.

Israel has been not only locked out of negotiations with Iran, it has not even been updated on their progress, according to the New York Times. Its government has been forced to resort to drawing on regional allies and their espionage networks surveilling Iran’s leadership.

The deal that Donald Trump’s team is negotiating may put some constraints on Iran’s nuclear programme, but there was broad consensus they would be less restrictive than an agreement reached by Barack Obama’s administration in 2015.

Netanyahu criticised that deal, officially known as the joint comprehensive plan of action, in Washington DC at the time.

“The emerging agreement is far worse than the previous one,” Ben Caspit wrote in Ma’ariv, highlighting the risk that fallout from the war and ceasefire deal could accelerate Iran’s nuclear programme, rather than destroying it as Netanyahu had promised. “If they [Iran] do come to possess a nuclear bomb, it will be Bibi’s bomb.”

The full analysis is here:

Markets have remained mixed in Asia, after the US said it carried out strikes in southern Iran, with traders appearing to shrug off any suggestion that the attack could usher in a return to all out war.

Benchmark US crude oil declined more than 4% to $91.59 a barrel. Brent crude, the international standard, gained $1.57 to $94.99 a barrel after falling nearly $5 on Monday.

With the status of peace talks with Iran unclear, markets have been swayed by various developments and comments made by Donald Trump.

“Markets are behaving as though a full Iran breakthrough already exists, even though the hardest parts of the negotiation remain unresolved,” Stephen Innes of SPI Asset Management wrote in a commentary.

Washington continues to signal optimism, while Tehran insists no agreement is imminent.”

More here from Marco Rubio saying he anticipates that progress over a potential US-Iran deal will “take a few days” amid discussions over the language in the agreement.

“There were some talks going on in Qatar today, so we’ll see if we can make progress,” the US secretary of state was quoted as saying in India during an official visit.

Marco Rubio speaks to reporters on board his plane at Jaipur International Airport. Photograph: Julia Demaree Nikhinson/Reuters

I think it’s a lot of talking back and forth going on about specific language in the initial document, so it’ll take a few days.

The president’s expressed his desire to make it. He’s either going to make a good deal or no deal.”

As just mentioned Rubio also said the strait of Hormuz must opened.