This US Navy handout photo released on May 26, 2026, by US Central Command Public Affairs shows an F/A-18E Super Hornet, attached to Strike Fighter Squadron (VFA) 14, preparing to make an arrested landing on the flight deck of Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln on May 25, 2026.
The United States and Iran traded strikes on June 1, as weeeks of indirect talks have so far failed to agree an end to the war or the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, the key shipping channel for Gulf oil and gas.
Iran's Tasnim news agency said Tehran was suspending all exchanges with mediators in peace talks with the United States on Monday, blaming Israel's ongoing invasion of Lebanon.
"Given the continuing crimes of the Zionist regime (Israel) in Lebanon and considering that Lebanon was one of the preconditions for the ceasefire and that this ceasefire has now been violated on all fronts, including Lebanon, the Iranian negotiating team is suspending dialogues and exchange of texts through mediators," Tasnim reported.
It said Iran was demanding the "immediate cessation" of Israel's military operations in Gaza and Lebanon and its withdrawal from areas it occupied in its northern neighbour as a precondition for resuming talks.
The U.S. military said it had carried out “self-defense strikes” on Iranian radar and drone control sites over the weekend, its third such wave in just over a week, this time in response to the downing of a U.S. MQ-1 drone.
Shortly afterwards, Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) told state media they had targeted an airbase used by the U.S. military from which the attack originated.
The IRGC did not identify the country said to be hosting the base, but the Kuwaiti military said its air defense had intercepted “hostile missile and drone attacks.”
Iran was already in talks with the United States about the fate of its nuclear program in February, when the U.S. and Israel launched air and missile strikes that wiped out much of the Islamic republic’s senior leadership and plunged the Middle East into war.
While Tehran has long insisted that its nuclear program is for purely civilian ends, the United States and its Western allies suspect it aims to develop am atomic weapon.
“We know when it is necessary to act on nuclear matters,” Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei told a weekly news briefing on June 1.
“No negotiations have taken place on the details of the nuclear file. At this stage, our priority is ending the war.”
“We insist that a ceasefire in Lebanon is an essential condition for any deal aimed at ending the war,” Baqaei said, adding, “The United States is also violating the ceasefire, including this morning.”
