US Hits Iranian Radar Sites Over Weekend as Trump Sends Back Tougher Draft Deal

The United States conducted several strikes on Iranian military sites over the weekend, according to US Central Command, as details of a draft peace deal between Washington and Tehran remained increasingly uncertain. In a post on X, CENTCOM wrote that "self-defence" strikes were conducted on "Iranian radar and command and control sites for drones in Goruk, Iran and Qeshm Island." The strikes, the statement added, came "in response to aggressive Iranian actions that included the shootdown of a US MQ-1 drone."

Meanwhile, Kuwaiti air defenses intercepted "hostile missile and drone attacks," the military said Monday, as air raid sirens sounded across the Gulf nation. "The General Staff of the Army wishes to advise that any sounds of explosions heard are the result of air defense systems intercepting these hostile attacks," the Kuwait Army said in a post on its official X account. KUNA, the state news agency, reported that air raid sirens rang out despite a US-Iran ceasefire that technically remains in place.

The weekend violence comes as US President Donald Trump reportedly hardened negotiating terms with Iran to end the war. American media reported that Trump had sent back a new version of a possible memorandum of understanding to Tehran with several tightened negotiating points. Trump has repeatedly said his priorities include stopping Iran from developing any nuclear weapon and reopening the Strait of Hormuz, which Iran has blockaded since the war began on February 28.

Tehran, however, has previously cast doubt on Trump's assertions, and the sides remain far apart on key issues. Any tweaks to the draft could further delay an agreement to formally end the war and reopen the strategic waterway after weeks of fraught negotiations marked by sharp rhetoric and occasional flare-ups of violence.

"We will not approve any agreement until we are certain that the rights of the Iranian people have been upheld," Iran's chief negotiator Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf said in a video broadcast on state television. According to the Tasnim news agency, exchanges on the text "are ongoing, with both parties regularly proposing amendments." Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, meanwhile, said that "until a clear conclusion is reached... everything that is being said now is speculation," according to state TV.

Iran has also said it needs the release of $12 billion in frozen assets before engaging in substantive talks on its nuclear programme. Tehran has dismissed earlier Trump comments that its enriched uranium stockpile would be destroyed as "baseless," according to Iranian media.

For now, American drones are being shot down, Iranian radar sites are being bombed, Kuwaiti skies are filling with interceptor missiles, and a draft deal that was supposed to end all of this is sitting on a desk somewhere, marked up with Trump's handwritten changes. The ceasefire is holding – barely. The negotiations are continuing – sort of. And the Strait of Hormuz remains closed. In the Middle East, that is about as close to peace as anyone has gotten in months. Which is to say: not very close at all.

Written by Thorben Thiede