US strikes Iran targets for second time in three days | BBC News

Hello, welcome, this is BBC News.The United States and Iran have exchanged attacks in the Middle East, rattling a fragile ceasefire as an agreement on ending the war continues to elude them.US forces said they'd launched what they called defensive attacks against a military control station in Bandar Abbas, which it says was launching drones and had shot down four aircraft.In retaliation, Iran's Revolutionary Guards said they targeted a US base in the region.They didn't specify where, but air raid sirens have sounded in Kuwait.Iranian media said four vessels had earlier tried to pass the Strait of Hormuz without permission from Tehran, causing Iranian forces to fire warning shots.

Now, during a cabinet meeting on Wednesday, President Trump said that Iran is negotiating on fumes, insisting that his war strategy will not be impacted by November's U .S.

midterm elections.Intent they want very much to make a deal so far.They haven't gotten there that we're not satisfied with it But now we will be we will be either that or we'll have to just finish the job It looks like they want to just make a deal.They want to yeah, I don't think they have a choice They're just going back to the internet because they're getting clobbered their economy is in freefall.They have 250 percent inflation their money has no value their whole Economic system is broken down They thought they were going to outweigh me.You know, we'll outweigh him.

He's got the midterms.I don't care about the midterms.

Our North America correspondent, Peter Bowes, gave us this update on the strikes overnight.

What we can say is that this ceasefire is increasingly fragile.Now, certainly from the American side, they're saying that this is not the end of the ceasefire.And just to quote the military statement, that these actions were measured purely defensive and intended to maintain the ceasefire.But clearly, this is not the end.Tensions are rising and this is the second time in three days that we've had similar incidentsand it does raise questions about what happens next.

All the time in the background these talks are supposedly taking place but we're getting sometimes wildly different accounts of the current state of negotiations and we've just heard the president once again saying that essentially if these negotiations come to nothing and that there's no deal we will, he says, have to finish the job.The same kind of language that we've been hearing from President Trump now for several weeks during what has been a relatively successful ceasefire.

Well, let's now speak to our Middle East correspondent, Yolande Nell, who's in Jerusalem for us.Yolande, we know negotiations had been taking place between Iran and the US.Where does this leave those discussions?

Well, those discussions do seem to have sort of been put on hold in part because of the ongoing Muslim feast of Eid al -Adha.But there were top Iranian officials in Qatar right at the start of this week.And there are some reports in the Israeli media this morning suggesting that a draft proposal for a memorandum of understanding between the US and Iran has been passed to Israel and to other American allies in the Middle East for them to look at, that this could be a sign of progress.But what has happened in the Gulf overnight, the second time this week that there has been an escalation there, that really does just underline how shaky things are.And, you know, this has had already an impact on oil prices, pushing them up once again.

And, Yolande, we're getting reports of fresh Israeli airstrikes in Gaza.What can you tell us?

So overnight there was a report of an Israeli airstrike that killed four people.The Israeli military has come out saying that theyGaza Strip.U .S.-brokered ceasefire that's supposed to be in place as well.

And just recently, a senior official on the U .S.-led Board of Peace was telling us that it seemed that there are violations of that ceasefire pretty much every day.

And of course, we talk a lot about what's happening in Iran, in Lebanon.What is life like in Gaza at the moment?

Life in Gaza is extremely hard for some two million people who are living there.The majority of the population remains displaced.And as long as these indirect talks between Israel and Hamas are deadlocked, there has not really been the progress on the ground that people were hoping for.And it has been said by the Board of Peace that unless Hamas commits to giving up its weapons, there will not be an Israeli troop withdrawal from Gaza.In fact, at the moment, Israeli troops have been advancing beyond the yellow line that they set up there to demarcate the part of Gaza, the half that they still control.And also, you know, in Gaza there cannot be reconstruction, the Board of Peace has said, unless Hamas gives up its weapons.

Things there do look very stuck and people there are very frustrated.Yolande, thank you.That's BBC's Yolande Nell in Jerusalem.