The US and Iran have reportedly reached an agreement on a memorandum of ‌understanding to extend their ceasefire ‌for 60 days, even as both sides were trading strikes.

Details of the tentative agreement were first reported by the news outlet Axios.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent repeatedly refused to confirm any deal, saying only that US President Donald Trump was “not going to make a bad deal”.

“The teams are going back in, and President Trump has made it very clear that he has several red lines,” Bessent said at a White House media briefing.

“Iran has to turn over their highly enriched uranium, they cannot pursue a nuclear weapon. Back to your question on energy, free transit has to be free and open as it was before.”

A source familiar with the matter said Trump had yet to approve any deal.

Once the MOU was signed, then talks would begin on Iran’s nuclear program, a US official said.

Trump’s administration has said several times that a deal is ​close only to have ​Iran dispute ‌or downplay the claims.

The developments late on Thursday (US time) came as Iran targeted a US airbase in response to what it described as an early morning US attack near Bandar Abbas airport, Tasnim news agency reported.

The escalation in hostilities highlighted threats to the tenuous ceasefire between the US and Iran that took effect in early April, dampening hopes for ‌a peace deal.

The US official 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 the US airbase from which the attack on the control station near Bandar Abbas was ‌launched.

Trump has repeatedly said the end of the war is close but told media at a cabinet meeting on Wednesday he was not yet satisfied by the negotiations and that the US was not discussing easing sanctions, an Iranian demand.

Mediator ​Pakistan said its ‌foreign minister, Ishaq Dar, would meet US Secretary of State Marco Rubio in Washington DC on Friday, although the significance of his visit was unclear.

Israel and the US attacked Iran three months ago.

There has been a ceasefire in place in the war since early April when Pakistan hosted peace talks. However, initial negotiations ended without a breakthrough.

Trump is looking for an agreement that will reopen the Strait of Hormuz, through which about a fifth of all traded oil and natural gas once passed.

He also is seeking to get Iran to give up its stockpile of highly enriched uranium.

Iran wants economic sanctions to be lifted and frozen assets to be released to aid its shattered economy.

Iranian officials also insist that any deal must include an end to Israel’s military operations in Lebanon against the Iranian-aligned militant group Hezbollah.

-with AAP