Iran says consultations with US mediators are intensifying

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi says consultations over relations with the United States are very intensive, with Qatar and Pakistan playing active roles as mediators.

Speaking to the Iranian state news agency IRNA on 2 November, Araghchi said delegations were travelling and messages and telephone calls were being exchanged, according to the Iranian newspaper Kayhan. He made the comments at the end of a visit to Turkmenistan.

Araghchi distinguished the current consultations from a resumption of negotiations. He said talks would resume and the Strait of Hormuz, a crucial route for oil shipments, would reopen if the US accepted Iran’s conditions.

A proposal Iran put forward in September called for an end to the war, the release of frozen Iranian assets, the lifting of oil sanctions and an end to the US counter-blockade of Iranian ports, AFP reported.

US President Donald Trump had previously acknowledged negotiations through mediators, telling Axios on 28 October that he did not know whether they would succeed.