US-Iran tensions rise, putting peace talks at risk

Tensions are rising between Washington and Tehran, putting an emerging peace plan that would have opened the Strait of Hormuz and offered relief to skyrocketing oil and gas prices at risk.

The U.S. struck southern Iran late Monday amid a clamor over negotiations for a framework of a deal to end the war. The U.S. insisted the strikes were defensive in nature and did not alter the course of talks.

But even before the new strikes, major sticking points had emerged over both the Strait of Hormuz and the thorny issue of Iran’s nuclear program.

The Trump administration is under enormous pressure in a midterm election year to deliver relief at the pump as Republicans worry they could lose the House and Senate majorities this fall.

Yet Trump is under an equal amount of pressure from conservatives in the GOP to win meaningful concessions that would prevent Iran from gaining nuclear programs and destroy enriched uranium within its borders.

In a post on the social platform X on Tuesday, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Aerospace Force Commander Seyed Majid Moosavi accused the U.S. of violating the ceasefire by launching the defensive strikes.

“The Aerospace Force of the IRGC is prepared for a decisive, swift response and the implementation of measures ordered by the esteemed Commander-in-Chief,” Moosavi warned.

Meanwhile, Iran’s Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei, who had previously been quiet on the social media platform, took to X on Tuesday to issue a slew of threats at the U.S. and Israel following the strikes.  

“The United States will no longer have a safe haven for its mischief and for establishing military bases in West Asia,” Khamenei wrote.  

The strikes come as the U.S. military has continued to enforce the naval blockade in the Strait of Hormuz, redirecting 108 commercial ships to ensure compliance, the U.S. Central Command said in an update on Tuesday. It is the U.S. body overseeing U.S. forces in the Middle East.

“It does signal that we won’t tolerate this provocation while we’re engaged in........

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