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The US military has carried out a second round of strikes in three days, targeting a drone control station near Bandar Abbas airport and shooting down four Iranian one-way attack drones that Centcom said posed a threat around the Strait of Hormuz; a fifth drone was prevented from launching. Iran's Revolutionary Guard responded by targeting a US airbase — believed to have been the launch point for the Bandar Abbas strike — with Kuwait's military reporting its air defences were responding to hostile missiles and drones, and sirens sounding in northern Israel over hostile aircraft activity. Trump separately rejected reports that he was close to a compromise deal with Tehran, as oil prices surged again on the renewed hostilities.
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US forces carried out overnight strikes on Iranian missile launch sites and mine-laying boats in the south of the country, which Washington said were aimed at protecting American troops. Iran's foreign ministry condemned the bombings as "an act of bad faith" and a "definitive violation of the ceasefire," warning it "will not leave any evil unanswered," though Tehran stopped short of withdrawing from negotiations or announcing specific military reprisals — with Iranian foreign minister Abbas Araghchi and chief negotiator Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf travelling to Doha for continued talks. The strikes killed four Iranian soldiers and sent Brent crude futures up more than four per cent, while a tanker was also damaged by an "external explosion" off Oman. Rubio said a final agreement could now take "a few days" and insisted the Strait of Hormuz would reopen "one way or the other," as Pakistan — one of the countries Trump had asked to sign the Abraham Accords — formally rejected that demand.
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President Trump has since added a significant new condition to any emerging agreement, insisting it should be 'mandatory' that Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Pakistan, Turkey, Egypt and Jordan simultaneously sign onto the Abraham Accords normalisation agreements with Israel — countries that have traditionally demanded a two-state solution as a precondition for such talks. Trump said negotiations are 'proceeding nicely' and indicated he raised the Abraham Accords expansion with leaders during talks on Saturday. The new demand drew initial resistance from hawkish voices, including Senator Lindsey Graham, who had warned that ending the conflict solely to reopen the Strait of Hormuz would be a 'nightmare' for Israel, though Graham softened his position after Trump floated the broader normalisation framework.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Sunday that a deal to formally end the war between Israel and Iran could materialise within hours, while President Donald Trump simultaneously tempered expectations by instructing his negotiating team not to rush into any agreement.
Speaking to reporters in New Delhi, Rubio struck a cautiously optimistic tone. "I do think perhaps there is the possibility that in the next few hours the world will get some good news," he said, adding that "a pretty solid" proposal was already on the table. Central to the emerging framework is the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz — the narrow waterway between Iran and the Arabian Peninsula through which roughly a fifth of the world's oil passes — which Iran has placed under shipping controls since the conflict began. Trump described the broader proposal as "largely negotiated" but wrote on his Truth Social platform that "time is on our side" and that any deal would be "good and proper."
The United States and Iran have observed a ceasefire since April 8, following a war that began on March 2, with the US blockading Iranian ports in a parallel pressure campaign. Diplomatic momentum has been building: on Saturday, Trump held a call with leaders from Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Egypt, Jordan, Bahrain, Turkey and Pakistan to discuss the prospective agreement. Israeli operations have continued in Lebanon despite the broader ceasefire, with the Lebanese health ministry reporting 3,123 deaths since the start of the conflict and Israel confirming the loss of 23 soldiers.
The prospect of a deal has drawn significant pushback from within Trump's own Republican Party. Senior senators including Roger Wicker, Lindsey Graham, Ted Cruz and Thom Tillis voiced concern that any agreement would effectively recognise Iran as a regional power requiring a diplomatic rather than military solution, and questioned whether Tehran could be trusted to honour its commitments. Democratic senators were equally critical, arguing the framework amounted to returning to the pre-war status quo. Trump dismissed his critics, telling them not to "listen to losers."
The coming hours will be closely watched across financial markets and diplomatic capitals alike. Japan's stock market surged to a record high on hopes of a resolution, underscoring how deeply the conflict has rattled global economic confidence. Whether a formal announcement materialises remains uncertain — Rubio himself cautioned that the timeline could slip, saying "I wouldn't read too much into it" if no news emerged immediately.
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