FLASH
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US and Iranian forces exchanged fire early Thursday, catapulting fragile talks into further uncertainty and clarifying unmet demands in a proposed ceasefire agreement.
Hours before Washington said it had attacked Iranian drones and a missile launch site around the crucial Strait of Hormuz, US President Donald Trump insisted his administration was still "unhappy" with the terms of the deal.
Tehran also escalated heated rhetoric, escalating the state of negotiations, warning that any aggression or violation of the ceasefire by the US military would be met with force, after firing at an unidentified US base in Kuwait.
Even public messages about the content of the proposal, known as a memorandum of understanding (MOU), are marred by contradictions, with Washington rejecting Tehran's claims that the draft stipulates the withdrawal of US forces and an end to blockades of Iranian ports.
But what are the three main issues that have led to this impasse?
1-Iran's nuclear stockpile : Iranian officials have warned that they will discuss nuclear weapons-related clauses only after negotiators cement the first phase of a preliminary agreement. The memorandum of understanding is not expected to cover in detail uranium enrichment, a fuel that can be used to build a bomb. Officials in Washington have used the phrase "No dust, no dollars" to describe the stockpile of highly enriched uranium that Trump wants to dump before Tehran's financial dictates are met.
Frozen assets: The US-Israeli bombing of Iran has only worsened an economic crisis preceded by crippling sanctions, prompting Tehran to demand the unblocking of billions of dollars in assets stored in banks abroad. Just on Thursday, a spokesman for the Iranian delegation claimed that officials were “successful” in securing the release of half of Iran’s frozen assets — worth about $12 billion — to be included in the Memorandum of Understanding, according to the semi-official Mehr News agency, citing Saeed Ajorlu.
Strait of Hormuz : Parallel U.S.-Iranian blockades of non-allied shipping in the Strait of Hormuz have rocked global oil prices and stranded tens of thousands of sailors along the key waterway. So far, authorities in Tehran have shown that they ultimately aim to maintain a greater degree of control over passage through the strait than before the war. But on Thursday, the U.S. sanctioned Iran’s newly created body to force carriers to comply with its rules.
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