The US ‌military has carried out strikes in southern ‌Iran in what it described ​as defensive actions amid the continued ceasefire and talks for an end to the war.

US Central Command said ⁠the strikes ‌on Monday (local time) against targets such as boats trying to lay mines and missile ‌launch ‌site were designed “to ​protect our troops ​from threats ‌posed by Iranian forces”.

“US ​Central Command continues to defend our ​forces ​while using ​restraint during the ‌ongoing ceasefire,” Navy Captain Tim Hawkins, a Central ​Command spokesman, said.

There has been a ceasefire between the US and Iran since April 7. There have been other small attacks in that time, none of which have violated the ceasefire’s terms.

Monday’s strikes came with Iran’s top negotiator and its foreign ‌minister in Doha for talks with Qatar’s prime minister on a potential deal with the US to end the three-month-old war, an official briefed on the visit said.

In New Delhi earlier, US ‌Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the US would give diplomacy every chance to succeed before considering whether to deal with Iran in “another way”.

There was a “pretty solid thing on the table in terms of their ability to open up the Strait [of Hormuz], get the strait open, enter into a very real, significant, time-limited negotiation on the nuclear matter, and hopefully we can pull it off”, Rubio said.

In a lengthy post on Truth Social on Monday, US President Donald Trump said talks with Iran were going “nicely”, but warned of fresh attacks if they failed.

It “will only be a Great Deal for all, or no Deal at all,” he wrote.

The official briefed on the Iranians’ Doha visit told Reuters the discussions focused primarily on the Strait of Hormuz and Iran’s stockpile of highly enriched uranium. Iran’s central bank governor was there ‌to discuss the potential release of ‌frozen Iranian funds as part of a ⁠final deal.

Iran’s foreign ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei said earlier that nuclear issues would be negotiated on only if the framework accord was agreed first.

Trump has said his key aim ​in the war is to prevent Iran from developing a nuclear weapon with its highly enriched uranium.

Tehran has consistently denied any plans to do that.

The two sides remain at odds on other issues, such as Israel’s war in Lebanon with the Iranian-backed Hezbollah militia and Tehran’s demands for the lifting of sanctions and the release of tens of billions of dollars of Iranian oil revenues frozen in foreign banks.

As efforts to reach a deal continued on Monday, Iran said it had downed a “hostile” stealth drone using a new air defence system, Iranian news agencies reported.

“This is a sign from us that no more stealth drones can penetrate the skies of the Persian Gulf,” Fars quoted unnamed officials as saying.

In his Truth Social post, Trump also called on more Arab and Muslim states to sign up to the Abraham Accords. They were brokered during his first ​term in office ‌and aimed at normalising ties between those states and Israel.

Trump said Saudi Arabia and Qatar should immediately sign and Pakistan, Egypt, Jordan and Turkey should follow, calling his request mandatory.

“It may be possible that one or two have a reason for not doing so, and that will be accepted, but most should be ready, willing, and able to make this Settlement with Iran a far more Historic Event than it would, otherwise, be,” he said, adding he was “mandatorily requesting” the step.

“If they don’t, they should not be part of this Deal in that it shows bad intention.”

There was reportedly a long silence on a weekend call between leaders when Trump made a similar demand.

“There was silence on the line and Trump joked and asked if they are still there,” one official has told US outlet Axios.

A Pakistani source familiar ​with the matter said that the statement reflected an attempt to use the Iran diplomacy for a wider push around the accords – but that the two issues were “not interlinked and cannot be made so”.

Others saw the suggestion as aimed at making an Iran deal more palatable to sceptics.

“Trump is trying to sell an Iran deal as an Abraham Accords sequel: Good for Israel, good for the region, tough enough for Washington,” said Ali Vaez, Iran project director at the International Crisis Group.

“But he ​is trading ​one fantasy for another – from forcing Iran to surrender to pretending a fragile deal can anchor a new Middle ​East order.”

Baghaei said there were no specific details on the potential Iran deal on managing the Strait of Hormuz, through ‌which about a fifth of the world’s oil and liquefied gas usually flows.

He said Iran wouldn’t charge tolls for ships to pass but there would be a cost for services offered such as navigation and steps to protect the environment, under a protocol to be agreed with Oman, which lies on the opposite shore of the waterway.

Iran’s ​state TV said on Monday that 32 vessels and five oil tankers passed through the strait in the past 24 hours with the authorisation of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards naval forces.

-with AAP