Iran threatens new offensive while US rules out extending ceasefire deal

TEHRAN, Aug 18:  Iran will shift to a "fully offensive" military posture because efforts to negotiate a permanent end to the war with the US have stalled, a senior Iranian official told Reuters on Monday, as Washington ruled out extending a temporary ceasefire agreement.

Outward progress towards peace talks and a resumption of oil tanker traffic through the strategic Strait of Hormuz has ground to a halt, threatening to extend the conflict that the US and Israel launched with attacks on Iran on February 28.

"Iranian entities must be prepared to escalate tensions in the Strait of Hormuz and wider region, as Iran will be ready to make decisions and take action on difficult decisions," the Iranian official said, adding that Tehran would conduct a "timely and precise" military attack to break the US naval blockade if diplomacy failed.

A memorandum of understanding signed in June to end the war had given Iran and the US until Monday to reach a final peace agreement.

Signed on June 17, the memorandum set a 60-day time frame for a broader deal on Iran's nuclear programme and US sanctions.

The agreement, which declared the "immediate and permanent termination of military operations on all fronts," quickly unravelled over a dispute about control of the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow waterway through which a fifth of global oil and liquefied natural gas flowed before the war.

Asked by reporters on Monday if the US was seeking to extend June's interim agreement, US President Donald Trump said no.

In one glimmer of diplomacy, media reports said Trump had opened back-channel discussions with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, which has become more powerful during the war and controls large parts of Iran's armed forces and the economy.

Axios, citing two sources with direct knowledge, reported that former Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard spoke with an Iraqi Kurdish leader with close ties to the IRGC, and that through this intermediary the US delivered a message to IRGC commander General Ahmad Vahidi. Fox News later reported that Trump confirmed the report in a telephone interview.

The Trump administration was concerned whether Iranian negotiators across the table actually spoke for the IRGC, Axios said, at a time when Reuters was reporting that Vahidi had become a pivotal figure. Vahidi responded that he was aligned with the Iranian negotiators, Axios said.

"I can't go into the details of it, but I will say that the conversations between the US government and different areas of the Iranian government at all areas is probably more robust than it's maybe ever been," Jared Kushner, Trump's son-in-law and special envoy, said in a separate interview with Fox News Channel’s Chief Foreign Correspondent Trey Yingst on Monday.�" REUTERS