Iran offers a faster plan for Hormuz while Trump keeps openly threatening new strikes
Tehran says it could free up the strait within two days if Washington meets its demands; the US president promised at an Iowa rally to strike hard sooner or later.
Iran is prepared to make the Strait of Hormuz safe for shipping again within two days, instead of the seven days it proposed earlier, if the United States accepts its conditions. Foreign ministry spokesman Esmaïl Baghaï said so at a press conference in Tehran on Monday, La Libre reports, citing AFP. He called the shorter timeline proof of good faith and said messages were still being exchanged through mediators. An earlier seven-day plan, which Iran presented via Qatar in September, was rejected by President Donald Trump.
Iran's demands are not new: a ceasefire on all fronts in the region, the release of Iranian assets held abroad, the lifting of sanctions on its oil sector and an end to the US naval blockade of Iranian ports. According to La Libre, those points were already part of an agreement the two countries reached in June, after a truce in April, but that deal collapsed this summer. Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi added on Al Jazeera on Sunday that Washington must also accept the new shipping route Iran agreed with Oman, and that US troops recently sent to the region must be scaled back. Business AM writes that Araghchi sees progress in the talks with the Qatari mediators.
At the same time the rhetoric is escalating. At a campaign rally in Iowa on Sunday, Trump said the United States will at some point have to deal Iran a heavy blow, La Libre reports. According to the US news site Axios, he discussed with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu whether strikes should resume. A spokesman for the Iranian army warned that a new war could last longer than the last one, and Baghaï promised on Monday an immediate and forceful response to any attack.
At sea, the situation remains tense. Qatar's state shipping company Nakilat said on Sunday that its LNG carrier Al Mayeda was hit by unidentified projectiles in the Gulf on Friday evening, with no injuries, RTBF reports. On the same day Oman rescued the 25 crew members of a burning oil tanker off its coast. Qatar has stepped up its mediation in recent days to prevent a resumption of hostilities.