Iran targets US air base after US strikes strain ceasefire

Added: 2026-05-30

[00:00:00]US Central Command accusing Iran of an egregious ceasefire violation this morning. This is after launching Iran launched a ballistic missile toward Kuwait. That missile was intercepted by Kuwaiti forces. Kuwait's min Kuwait's Ministry of Foreign Affairs called it a dangerous escalation. Now, US officials say this attack came hours after Iran had, as it described, posed a clear threat by launching attack drones near the straight of Hormuz. And SenCom says that US forces intercepted those drones and then and launched its own attack and prevented another drone from launching from a site in Bandar Abbas. Iran says that it then launched a retaliatory attack targeting an unmanned US base.

[00:00:39]Now just to sum up, what ceasefire is a good question to be asking this morning.

[00:00:44]Meanwhile, just moments ago, Iran's Supreme Leader is now speaking out, praising the strength of the Iranian people and now calling for greater unity. CNN's Kevin Lipac is at the White House. Kevin, there's a lot of moving parts this morning. Start with I don't know what the message we just heard from US Central Command.

[00:01:04]>> Yeah, and I think bottom line it all adds up to a lot of questions about how these two sides are going to come up with any kind of deal. Despite the president's, you know, recent optimism that they were heading in the right direction, this all is very clearly on quite shaky ground as both sides accused the other of violating the ceasefire as both sides appear to harden their negotiating positions. It is not at all clear how this is going to be resolved.

[00:01:31]You know, Sentcom saying that this ballistic missile that Iran fired in retaliation towards Kuwait is quote an egregious ceasefire violation. You have had uh officials over the last several weeks describing these skirmishes as something more minor, something that doesn't necessarily violate the ceasefire even though it has become evident that the firing is not ceasing in any way. And just to give you a little bit of a tick tock of how this all unfolded overnight, the US detecting Iran firing these one-way drones towards a commercial vessel in the straight of Hermuz. They take those drones out. They also take out the ground facility that they say was preparing to fire an additional drone and then Iran responding by firing this ballistic missile. This is the second incident that we've seen occur in the straight of Formuz just in the last 48 hours. It does raise some questions about the capabilities that Iran has retained over the course of this conflict despite President Trump's claims that Iran has been obliterated militarily. You see them digging out some of the missile launch sites. you see them uh maintaining the drone facilities along the street, continuing their ability to cause havoc in that waterway, which when you talk to officials uh behind the scenes is uh quite a major concern. And so all leading to some complications on these ceasefire talks and these peace talks, you know, we heard from President Trump yesterday, I think really trying to appear reluctant to seem overeager to reach a deal. He says that he doesn't concerned about uh the midterms. He's not feeling any pressure and in fact threatening another country, the Gulf state of Oman, which is a top US ally, if they get into a partnership with Iran to control the straight of Hormuz. With us now, CNN political and global affairs commentator Sabrina Singh. And as we look at the situation in the straight, we can see here where the US said it carried out a strike and there were also the ballistic missiles shot at Kuwait.

[00:03:30]This doesn't sound like a ceasefire.

[00:03:33]Even Sencom now saying Iran committing a ceasefire violation. What pressure do you think this puts on whatever peace discussions are happening?

[00:03:44]>> Well, this is now the second time in 3 days that we're seeing an exchange of kinetic action between the two sides.

[00:03:50]Um, of course, you know, when the United States takes actions in their self-defense, it's considered in self-defense, and when Iran does it, it's considered a breach of the ceasefire. I think both sides, you know, continue to message to their particular audiences who is breaking the ceasefire and when. But no matter how you cut it, um this is putting an immense pressure on the very um fragile deal that is in place. I I'm curious to see how this administration responds to Iran's um you know, launch today of this ballistic missile towards Kuwait. But there's no question that this ceasefire is so fragile and that an exchange of kinetic action um in days to come could could further fracture the ceasefire and potentially break it completely.

[00:04:33]>> And the way that the president is talking about it could also have an impact. Of course, yesterday while we were on the air, Iranian state media released what they say were, you know, the 14 some of the points on the memo being discussed right now. And that said, the straight of Hormuz would be open and under joint control with Iran and Oman, the nation here, actually this is part of Oman right there. The tip there, which you can see with Iran there, really borders the straight of Hormuz. The president didn't seem to like the idea that Oman would be involved in any kind of partnership with Iran, controlling the straight. Listen to what he said.

[00:05:13]>> Nobody's going to control it. We're going to watch over it. We'll watch over it, but nobody's going to control it.

[00:05:17]That's part of the negotiation that we have. They would like to control it.

[00:05:21]Nobody's going to control it. It's international waters and Oman will behave just like everybody else. So, we'll have to blow him up.

[00:05:30]>> Or we'll have to blow him up. Now, that may have just been a joke. It may have just been an aside, Sabrina. But a statement like that, how is that received in the region?

[00:05:41]>> I mean, that was a shocking statement.

[00:05:42]We're we're certainly used to shocking statements from this president, but to attack one of our, you know, strongest allies in the region, I think we've had an agreement with Oman since 1833. I mean, this is one of our longest standing allies that has been critical not just for our defensive purposes in the region, but also just with diplomatic ties and getting towards this ceasefire. It's countries like Oman, Qatar, UAE, Saudi that have really urged the United States to take this ceasefire agreement. So, um, insulting our allies like that, threatening to blow them up, um, doesn't help with our diplomatic ties and frankly creates a lot of uncertainty in the region because you might see countries like Oman say, "Okay, the United States is no longer a reliable ally. I'm going to cut a deal with Iran because at the end of the day, my economy is being impacted. Um, my military is being impacted. We just cannot sustain this war." And so you might see some countries want to cut a deal with Iran to just get the the straight open. Obviously, this is not what the administration wants. I hope that's not what the president intended.

[00:06:46]Um, and I think what you're seeing from the president saying is it's not acceptable for either Iran or Oman to control that straight because they want to go back to the status quo before the war where there was a flea free flow of commerce through the straight and freedom of navigation was allowed.

[00:07:01]Joining us now is CNN political and national security analyst David Sanger of the New York Times. David, thank you for being here. Just >> seeing the as we've been talking about this fragile ceasefire there. They call all of the actions defensive actions, not offensive actions, and saying that the ceasefire has been holding, but now seeing this from SentCon this morning an egregious ceasefire violation. How in question do you think this is? Well, first of all, when the United States does these strikes, they're defensive because they see something that's massing that might turn into an attack on American forces, but as a threat, but when the Iranians respond, it's a ceasefire violation. And of course, the exact reverse. When you hear the Iranians talk about it, so what do we have here? First of all, we have something of a stalemate, which is kind of where the Iranians wanted this to go get the president because the president is not doing enough strikes back on Iran to make a difference. And as we've discussed before, even 38 days of bombing didn't bring about what he wanted. He's trying to get this agreement, this one-page memorandum of understanding that he calls a deal. But what is it? It's >> that what is the deal? Because it's you can't say it's a nuclear deal. That is going to take a long time to negotiate if that would happen.

[00:08:22]>> What kind of deal is this? So, it's not a peace deal. It's not a nuclear deal.

[00:08:25]It's not a missile deal for the reasons you were just discussing, Kate. What it would be would be a way to get the Straight open again. Now, the Strait, of course, was open before the United States and Israel did their attacks on February 28th. So, it would be an effort to get back to the status quo before the attacks began. But that doesn't get to any of the American goals in the actual conflict, which were end the nuclear program, limit the missile program, bring about regime change. Just going by what the president said the night that he started all of this. And I know they don't like to be reminded of what those goals are, but those are the goals. If the Iranians can get the US into some kind of a reopening of the straits, so they're getting their revenue again and the American gas prices come down, that's in both their interests. But then you're into the exact kind of lengthy negotiation that led to the war to begin with.

[00:09:24]>> But and then there's also a question of like at what point of any negotiation are we at? because the president and you've described this so well which is kind of the veering nature of his approach and the impact of it. They're very close to a deal. Uh he is in no rush to get a deal. Iran is urgently begging for a deal. But now Trump is he said the president said during the cabinet meeting yesterday describing as having almost like the utmost patience.

[00:09:50]They can't outweight me as he said. So is it clear where they are in the negotiation? I mean, Marco Rubio says, you know, it's almost like they're quibbling over one word here, one word there.

[00:10:01]>> Well, Secretary Rubio said that, but those words that they're quibbling over are actually to fundamental issues. One of them is, "What do you do with that stockpile of 970 lb of near bombra nuclear material?"

[00:10:17]>> What did you think of that? at that part it was almost like glossed over a little bit yesterday when he was asked like would you be comfortable with with China or Russia taking the nuclear material >> and he said no which surprised me because on the plane back from China he told us that you know this had been a subject of of some conversation um so uh I thought that that what that meant was he wants the material in American hands and I'm sure US intelligence agencies want that because there's a lot to learned from how they've actually enriched this. What does it not get to the other 11 tons of nuclear material that Iran has. So you we just need to relentlessly focus on what was the problem we were trying to solve here. And that's been lost in all of this discussion about a one-page agreement. There's a reason it took the Obama administration two years to negotiate the accord the president let that President Trump then abandoned. You may like it, you may not like it, but it was a long complex process and this is going to be two.

[00:11:26]>> Yeah. Past is prologue. It does seem that is appear to be bearing out here.

[00:11:29]It's great to see you. Great to be here.