WASHINGTON/TEHRAN(National Times)- The United States and Iran are expected to hold talks this week, said President Donald Trump after he rejected a proposal by Tehran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz in exchange for cessation of all hostilities in the Middle East and a return to the conditions in the ceasefire deal that fell apart a few months ago.
President Trump told Axios that his negotiators would engage their Iranian counterpart over the next few days apparently to break the stalemate over Hormuz.
Iran announced a peace proposal last week at the UN General Assembly in New York, saying it had been transmitted to the Americans via Qatari mediators. It called for a cessation of all hostilities in the Middle East, including in Lebanon, and a return to the conditions in the ceasefire deal that fell apart a few months ago. That agreement called for the release of frozen Iranian assets, the lifting of sanctions on Iranian oil and an end to the US naval blockade.
Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Iran has never closed the door to diplomacy but it would not capitulate. “Our conditions are clear, and any move toward reopening the Strait of Hormuz is contingent on these conditions being met,” Mr Araghchi posted on social media.
“Only a negotiated solution can get them out of this deadlock.”
‘Demanding too much’
President Trump, however, said Iranians were losing badly, which was the reason they wanted to make a deal to open the strait. “They want to make a deal and I think that’s fine. I like making a deal too.”
His ambassador to the UN, Mike Waltz, accused Tehran of demanding too much in exchange for a return to the negotiating table.
“This was, I think, a pretty cynical attempt to put something on the table that they knew was unacceptable. To ask for the release of the blockade, the sanctions, international sanctions and access to billions in assets, just to talk,” he told NBC News in an interview broadcast Sunday.
The Wall Street Journal first reported that Trump had rejected the Iranian proposal, citing unnamed US officials. It said Trump was privately sceptical that Iran would meet his demands and had told his staff that he sees a renewed bombing campaign as likely after the November US midterm elections.
Despite Trump’s public statements, mediators facilitating Tehran’s talks with Washington have not officially relayed a US rejection of the plan, the Iranian top diplomat said. “We are waiting for the mediators to convey the definitive views to us, and we will make a decision based on them,” Mr Araghchi noted.
‘Critical, decisive stage’
At the same time, Iran’s armed forces said they were prepared for any renewed US attacks. Army spokesperson Mohammad Akraminia warned that the US would suffer greater damage if it launched another attack on his country.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards claimed on Sunday to have seized an American submarine drone on Sunday in the strategic Strait of Hormuz. They said that the drone was “operating in the Strait of Hormuz for espionage purposes”, identifying the model as a Remus 600 autonomous underwater vehicle that was “now in the hands of the force’s specialists for data recovery”.
Separately, Iranian Army Commander-in-Chief Amir Hatami said the war was at a critical and decisive stage, adding that Tehran would not accept a situation in which it was unable to trade while foreign powers used the region’s strategic waterways. “If Iran cannot trade, if Iran cannot live, no one will be able to trade or live,” he added.
