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Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi has met with Qatari mediators in New York to discuss a proposal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, while a United States official said there would be no agreement to end the war unless Tehran’s nuclear programme is addressed, Al Jazeera reported.
Araghchi told Iranian state media on Monday that the Qatari mediators would carry the ideas discussed at the meeting to the US and that he hoped to receive Washington’s final response by Tuesday.
“We talked about ideas and how to find solutions to fulfil Iran’s conditions and how to implement those conditions,” he said. “They had some ideas, and we had a discussion that they will also present to the American side.”
Asked whether he would stay in New York to await the reply, Araghchi said he would fly to Tehran within hours.
“Whenever the Qataris have a response, they know how to get it to us,” he said.
He described the meetings as part of an existing exchange of messages through Qatari and Pakistani mediators, which he said had taken on “a more serious form” since Iran submitted its proposal.
The Iranian plan, announced on Friday at the United Nations General Assembly in New York City, calls on the US to release frozen Iranian funds, lift sanctions and end its naval blockade of Iranian ports. Araghchi said those steps could be completed within four or five days, allowing the strait to reopen and negotiations on a final agreement, including on Iran’s nuclear programme, to begin by the seventh day.
US President Donald Trump, however, rejected the proposal on Saturday, calling it “unacceptable”.
The US official, who spoke to Al Jazeera, said indirect discussions were continuing.
The talks were “positive and constructive”, the official said, but stressed there would be no agreement unless Iran’s nuclear programme is addressed.