Iran’s Revolutionary Guard said on Thursday it targeted a U.S. ​airbase after the U.S. military carried out what a Washington official said were strikes targeting an Iranian drone operation near the Strait of Hormuz, hours after President Donald ‌Trump rejected a report he was close to a compromise deal with Tehran, Reuters reported.

The escalation in hostilities highlighted threats to the tenuous ceasefire between the U.S. and Iran that took effect in early April, dampening hopes for a peace deal and sending oil prices surging again.

The U.S. official, who requested anonymity to speak candidly about military operations, told Reuters the military shot down four Iranian attack drones and struck a ground control station in the port city of Bandar Abbas that was ​about to launch a fifth drone.

“These actions were measured, purely defensive and intended to maintain the ceasefire,” the official said.

The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said it targeted a U.S. base in response to ​what it described as an early morning U.S. attack near Bandar Abbas airport, Tasnim news agency reported. The IRGC said they targeted the U.S. airbase from ⁠which the attack on the control station near Bandar Abbas was launched.

Kuwait – which hosts a large U.S. base – said it was responding to missile and drone attacks without saying where the attacks were coming ​from, read the report.

Israel, which has been fighting Iran-backed Hezbollah militants in southern Lebanon, also reported sounding sirens regarding hostile aircraft activity in northern Israel.

Oil prices, having fallen more than 5% on Wednesday, rebounded after reports of the ​escalation in hostilities. U.S. crude futures gained more than 3%, while stocks fell and the dollar rose.

The war has killed thousands and sent global energy prices sharply higher since it began on February 28 with U.S. and Israeli strikes. Trump has repeatedly said that a deal is close at hand.

At a cabinet meeting attended by media on Wednesday, Trump dismissed an Iranian state TV report that it had obtained an unofficial draft of ​an agreement to restore commercial shipping through the strait to prewar levels within a month, with Iran and Oman jointly managing traffic.

Trump said no single country would have control over the waterway, and ​appeared to threaten Oman, a country with which the U.S. has decades-long military and economic ties.

“Nobody’s going to control (the strait),” Trump said. “It’s international waters and Oman will behave just like everybody else or we’ll have to blow them ‌up. They ⁠understand that, they’ll be fine.”

Trump added that he was not yet satisfied on a deal with Iran and the U.S. was not discussing easing sanctions on the country.

The White House and Oman’s embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Iran’s permanent mission to the United Nations was not immediately available for comment.

The Iranian TV report of a framework deal said the United States would also lift its blockade of Iranian ports and withdraw military forces from Iran’s vicinity.

Ebrahim Azizi, head of the Iranian parliament’s national security committee, said Trump’s “rhetoric” would not force Iran to back away from its demands to enrich ​uranium, wield authority over the strait and see ​sanctions against it lifted.

“It is obvious Trump, seeking ⁠a way out of this strategic deadlock, alternates between issuing threats and appealing for an agreement,” Azizi said in a post on X.

The strait, which handled a fifth of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas traffic before the war, the dismantling of Iran’s nuclear capacity and ongoing sanctions are ​the sticking points in talks seeking to end the three-month conflict.

The waterway is covered by international law that guarantees foreign vessels the right to pass ​through.

The U.S. Treasury Department added the ⁠Persian Gulf Strait Authority, the Iranian body set up to manage passage through the strait, to a list of sanctioned people and entities seen as posing threats to U.S. national security, Reuters reported.

Iranian state TV said the draft deal would also have the U.S. withdraw military forces from the immediate vicinity, though it said the issue of U.S. troops in the region needed further discussion. The White House dismissed the report as a “complete fabrication.” Tehran ⁠did not comment.

The ​Iranian TV report on the draft agreement did not mention Iran’s nuclear program, which the U.S. wants disbanded.

Iranian sources have ​said talks on the nuclear issue will come in a second round of negotiations – something that may not be acceptable to some of Trump’s closest supporters. Iran says its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes only.

“The bottom line is Iran’s never going to ​have a nuclear weapon,” U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said at the cabinet meeting.

The U.S. military carried ​out strikes on ‌Monday in southern Iran against targets including ​boats attempting ​to lay mines and ⁠missile launch sites, ​in what it ​described as defensive actions, Reuters reported.

U.S. Central Command said in ​a statement the ​strikes were designed “to protect ‌our ⁠troops from threats posed by Iranian forces.”

“U.S. Central Command ​continues to ​defend ⁠our forces while using ​restraint during the ​ongoing ⁠ceasefire,” said Navy Captain Tim Hawkins, ⁠a ​Central Command ​spokesperson.

U.S. President Donald Trump said on Sunday he had told his representatives not to rush into any deal with Iran, as his administration played down hopes of an imminent breakthrough ​in the three-month-old war that had been raised a day earlier.

The U.S. blockade on Iranian ships in the Strait of Hormuz would “remain in full force and effect until an agreement is reached, certified, and ‌signed,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “Both sides must take their time and get it right,” he added, Reuters reported.

There was no immediate response from Iran’s government. But Tasnim news agency, which is linked to Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, said the U.S. was still obstructing parts of a potential deal, including Tehran’s demand for the release of frozen funds.

A day earlier, Trump said Washington and Iran had “largely negotiated” a memorandum of understanding on a peace deal that would reopen the Strait of Hormuz, which before the conflict carried one-fifth of global oil and liquefied natural gas shipments.

The two sides remain ​at odds on several difficult issues, such as Iran’s nuclear ambitions, Israel’s war in Lebanon with the Iranian-backed Hezbollah militia and Tehran’s demands for the lifting of sanctions and the release of tens of billions of dollars ​of Iranian oil revenues frozen in foreign banks.

WORKING OUT DEAL’S DETAILS

A senior Trump administration official told reporters an agreement would not be signed on Sunday, saying that the Iranian system ⁠did not move fast enough. But he outlined what he said were the latest contours of what was being negotiated.

The official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said Iran had agreed “in principle” to open the Strait of Hormuz, in exchange ​for the United States lifting its naval blockade, and to dispose of Tehran’s highly enriched uranium.

He said the U.S. understood Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei had endorsed the broad template of the deal.

There was no immediate confirmation from Iran or ​elaboration on what an “in principle” agreement meant.

The U.S. official said Washington envisioned first re-opening the strait and lifting the U.S. naval blockade. Negotiating the details of the nuclear measures would take more time, he said.

He pushed back on suggestions that Iran has not accepted disposing of its stockpiled enriched uranium. “It’s a question about how,” the official said.

A second senior administration official said on Sunday that the proposed framework would give negotiators 60 days to reach a final deal.

Iranian sources had told Reuters that in future stages, “feasible formulas” could be found to resolve the ​dispute over its highly enriched uranium stockpile, including diluting the material under the supervision of the U.N. nuclear watchdog.

Iran has long denied U.S. and Israeli accusations that it is pursuing nuclear weapons and says it has a right to enrich uranium ​for civilian purposes, although the purity it has achieved far exceeds that needed for power generation.

DEAL DRAWS OUT U.S. CRITICS

Trump, whose approval ratings have been hit by the war’s impact on U.S. energy prices and who has faced congressional efforts to curb his war powers, has ‌repeatedly played up ⁠the prospect of an agreement to end the conflict that the U.S. and Israel started on February 28. A tenuous ceasefire has been in place since early April.

Oil prices hit two-week lows to kickstart the week with Brent crude futures down over 4% to $98.83 a barrel — the first time it has dipped below $100 in intraday trading since early May — while U.S. West Texas Intermediate was at $92.03 a barrel, also down over 4%.

As details of the possible agreement emerged over the weekend, critics including former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Democratic lawmakers argued that it offered little beyond the 2015 Iran nuclear deal negotiated by former President Barack Obama, from which Trump withdrew during his first term.

Chris Van Hollen, a Democratic member of the Senate Foreign Relations ​Committee, said the deal’s reported outlines would amount to ​little more than “the pre-war status quo” with Iran.

“I think ⁠this was a blunder,” Van Hollen said on the “Fox News Sunday” program. “When you’re digging a hole, you should stop digging, and that sounds like maybe what we’re doing finally.”

Trump, who has also faced criticism from hawkish conservatives over his willingness to compromise with Iran, pushed back.

“If I make a deal with Iran, it will be a good and proper one … So don’t ​listen to the losers, who are critical about something they know nothing about,” Trump said in a Truth Social post on Sunday.

In another potential stumbling block, an Iranian ​military adviser to Khamenei said Tehran ⁠had the legal right to manage the Strait of Hormuz, though it was not clear if that meant continuing to decide which ships can go through.

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said 33 vessels had passed through the strait over the past 24 hours after getting permission from Tehran, still far short of the 140 on a typical day before the war.

Any deal reinforcing the current fragile ceasefire would bring relief to markets but not immediately quell a global energy crisis, which has driven up costs of fuel, fertilizer and food.

Even ⁠if the war ​ends now, full flows through the strait will not return before the first or second quarter of 2027, the head of the Abu Dhabi National ​Oil Company said last week.

The U.S.-Israeli bombing of Iran killed thousands of people in Iran before it was suspended in early April.

Israel has also killed thousands more and driven hundreds of thousands from their homes in Lebanon, which it invaded in pursuit of Hezbollah. Iranian strikes on Israel and neighbouring Gulf ​states have killed dozens.