Why US Risked Peace Talks in Striking Southern Iran This Week

The U.S. attacked southern Iran twice this week with targeted “defensive” strikes, sparking brief retaliation from Tehran and putting fresh pressure on fraught but ongoing peace talks.

American officials said their strikes on Monday and Wednesday focused on drone and missile systems that Iran uses to keep its grip on the Strait of Hormuz, as well as its mine-laying equipment stationed near the vital shipping lane.

The strikes prompted Iran to respond with drones to attack a U.S. base in Kuwait. Both sides then accused the other of breaching the ceasefire that has been in place for more than seven weeks as negotiations continue for a permanent end to the war.

But the fresh attacks on southern Iran made military sense for the U.S., experts say, and most likely played into President Donald Trump’s negotiating strategy with largely unmoved Iranian officials.

How Did Strikes Unfold?

The strikes were linked to the blocked Strait of Hormuz, which has been effectively controlled by Tehran for three months since the first U.S.-Israeli strikes on Iran on February 28.

The traffic decline in the vital international shipping lane has shaken supply chains, driven up the price of oil, fuel and food and roiled stock markets around the world.

It has become one of Tehran’s most effective bargaining tools against the U.S. and infuriated the White House. Despite the U.S. enacting its own blockade on Iranian ports to pressure Tehran, the Middle East country has still maintained its grip on the strait, controlling which ships transit the waterway.

The U.S. strikes homed in on Bandar Abbas, a major military hub and port city on the northern edge of the Strait of Hormuz. The first wave reportedly hit Iranian surface-to-air missile systems that could threaten U.S. forces blockading Iran, while the U.S. Central Command-which coordinates U.S. forces in the Middle East-said its Wednesday strikes targeted an Iranian ground site near the city that had already launched several drones and was preparing to carry out another attack.

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) confirmed an attack near Bandar Abbas airport and said it had retaliated by attacking an American base. The U.S. later said Iran had fired a ballistic missile toward Kuwait in an “egregious” breach of the truce.

Why Hit Southern Iran?

“Southern Iran is not random terrain,” said Andreas Krieg, a senior lecturer at the School of Security Studies at King’s College London.

Cities like Bandar Abbas, as well as islands in the strait like Larak and Qeshm, are key to Iran’s chokehold over the waterway, Krieg told Newsweek.

Bandar Abbas is one of Iran’s main naval hubs, and it is thought to be home to at least a dozen sites for launching anti-ship missiles from underground silos.

The Iranian islands in the strait are known to store weapons for Iran to use in the narrow waterway.

U.S. and other Western intelligence agencies believe Iran has been laying mines in the strait, making it very difficult for commercial and military ships to transit without demining operations taking place first.

Tehran has also used missiles, different types of drones, and small, fast-moving boats to menace ships in the area, enforcing its control and deterring vessels from attempting the journey.

Iranian state media has described Bandar Abbas as hub for fast-attack boats, which emerge from caves to launch missiles and slink away before they can be taken out.

Lots of Unknowns

There may also be targets the U.S. knows about in southern Iran that it hasn’t made public.

The U.S. may have used the weeks since the ceasefire was declared to collect more intelligence on the types of assets and weapons Iran has deployed along its coastline in this area, said Burcu Ozcelik, a senior research fellow for Middle East security at the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) think tank in London.

This week’s strikes may have been responding to new information gathered by the U.S. or Israel about Iranian equipment in Bandar Abbas that could pose a significant threat to U.S. forces, but it’s very difficult to know for sure at this stage.

Diplomatic Ploy?

“But the timing also makes them a negotiating tactic,” Krieg said.

While still engaged in talks, the U.S. is making it clear that it will strike anything that endangers U.S. forces and shipping, Krieg added.

“That is coercive diplomacy, not simply battlefield necessity,” he said.

The U.S. strikes were quite limited and haven’t been followed by additional attacks. They could be a way for the U.S. to show Iran that its is serious about continuing with the military campaign if Tehran doesn’t bend in negotiations, which have been deadlocked.

Slow Progress on Deal

U.S. and Iranian teams tentatively agreed to extend the existing ceasefire by 60 days and launch fresh talks on Iran’s nuclear program, the Associated Press reported on Friday, citing an anonymous U.S. official.

Vice President JD Vance had indicated progress in negotiations on Thursday but said President Donald Trump may not sign off on the terms on the table.

Iran would not be able to collect tolls from ships trying to travel through the strait and would need to remove all mines from the waterway within a month, the AP reported.

In a fresh statement on Friday, Trump said Iran must “immediately” open the strait and impose no tolls on ships in the waterway while removing any remaining mines.

Earlier this week, he dismissed a report from Iranian state television that suggested Iran could jointly control ships making it through the Strait of Hormuz with Oman-a U.S. ally-and that pre-war levels of shipping traffic could return within a month.

The U.S. slapped sanctions on Iran’s newly created Persian Gulf Strait Authority, which Tehran said would control shipping in the strait. It has also threatened sanctions on those paying Iran for safe passage through the waterway.

Trump reiterated on Friday the long-standing U.S. demand that Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon, and that a stockpile of uranium enriched to levels close to what is needed to make a nuclear bomb would be confiscated.

Who ends up controlling Iran’s stockpiles of highly enriched uranium has been one of the biggest sticking points in U.S. negotiations with Iran for years, pre-dating the current conflict.

The United Nations’ nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), said that by mid-2025, Iran had enriched roughly 440 kilograms of uranium to 60 percent, which is close to weapons-grade 90 percent. From there, it’s a short scientific jump to making a nuclear bomb.

Iran has long said its nuclear program is peaceful and geared to generate energy for a civilian population using an increasing amount of electricity. But it’s generally accepted that uranium enriched to 3.67 percent works for civilian reactors, and Iran has enriched uranium to between 20 percent and 60 percent.

Trump has also insisted that he wants countries like Saudi Arabia to normalize relations with Israel as part of the deal, expanding agreements known as the Abraham Accords.

During Trump’s first term, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain agreed to deepen links with Israel, followed by Morocco and Kazakhstan. Sudan agreed to normalize relations with Israel in late 2020, but the deteriorating situation in the country delayed the official signing of the agreement.

While this would deliver Trump a big foreign policy win, it’s still a politically toxic prospect in Saudi Arabia that could further push back the timetable on an already-complex agreement.

For Riyadh, joining the Abraham Accords is difficult because of its commitment to a Palestinian state, which was jeopardized by Israel’s war in Gaza beginning in late 2023.

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This story was originally published May 29, 2026 at 12:36 PM.