Iran says it has replied to US proposal as reported drone strikes strain ceasefire

Iran has said it has replied to a US peace proposal, on a day when a month-old ceasefire showed signs of fraying, with drone strikes reported around the region. Iranian state media reported that the Iranian response had been passed to Pakistani mediators, without giving further details. The announcement came a week after the US presented a peace proposal , which was reported to consist of a one-page 14-point memorandum of understanding that would reopen the strait of Hormuz while setting a framework for further talks on Iran’s nuclear programme. The memorandum was itself a response to an earlier Iranian proposal. That also envisaged the lifting of parallel US and Iranian blockades on the strait, which have been driving up oil prices and stifling the global economy, with an emphasis on the lifting of sanctions and the release of frozen Iranian assets. The announcement of a new response from Tehran came on a day when the Pakistan-brokered ceasefire, which came into effect on 8 April, showed new signs of strain. The United Arab Emirates and Kuwait reported drone incursions in their airspace on Sunday, and a drone attack started a small fire on a ship on the coast of Qatar. Another drone strike was reported at a camp used by an Iranian Kurdish rebel group near Erbil in north-eastern Iraq. Qatar’s defence ministry did not give details of the vessel targeted on Sunday, other than that it had come from Abu Dhabi. …