Are US and Iran close to peace or sliding back to war?

Key developments are emerging from the global stage. Are US and Iran close to peace or sliding back to war? 17 minutes ago Share Save Add as preferred on GooglePaul AdamsDiplomatic correspondentReutersUS President Donald Trump said on Wednesday he was "not satisfied" yet with the terms of a deal being negotiated with Iran. A ceasefire "hanging by a thread".

A diplomatic process "making progress". A president "not satisfied". And explosions echoing around the Gulf.

The Details

What to make of the current, confusing state of relations between the US and Iran - are we close to peace or sliding back to war? This week has certainly tested the ceasefire, which came into effect on 8 April and has now lasted considerably longer than the active phase of fighting which preceded it. Iran responded to the latest US strikes - which included what US Central Command (Centcom) described as a "ground control site" in the southern Iranian port city of Bandar Abbas - with a warning that "aggression will not go unanswered".

Its Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) then said it had attacked an American air base. It did not say which, but Centcom later said a ballistic missile had been intercepted over Kuwait, where the US has several bases. Echoing Tehran's language, Centcom called the attack "an egregious ceasefire violation".

It all sounds ominous, but this is still a far cry from the furious exchanges that characterised the first five-and-a-half weeks of this conflict. In that time, the US and Israel launched thousands of sorties against targets all across Iran, and Tehran responded with volleys of drones and ballistic missiles against US bases, Gulf countries and Israel. The US said on Thursday it had shot down five Iranian drones which "posed a threat around the Strait of Hormuz", suggesting shipping - commercial or military - was once again the focus of concern.

What Experts Say

But neither side seems to regard the sort of tit for tat exchanges we have seen this week as marking a return to all-out war. Iran says it targeted American base after fresh US strikesTrump says US 'not satisfied' with Iran deal yetAll the while, a tortured diplomatic process, involving multiple actors, is playing out in the background. We get glimpses of that process from time to time, but they are partial and fleeting.

On Wednesday, Iranian state media reported elements of what they described as an unofficial draft of a 14-point memorandum of understanding. The report included everything Tehran would like to see: the lifting of Washington's naval blockade of Iranian ports, the withdrawal of US forces from the "vicinity of Iran", and the restoration of non-military traffic through the Strait of Hormuz with Iran and Oman in control of the management and routing of vessels. Notably absent from the report was any talk of Iranian concessions, especially on the all-important nuclear issue.

The White House issued a terse statement, calling the purported draft a "complete fabrication".

The story has become one of the most prominent items on the global agenda.