Araghchi tells UN chief that US is making ‘repeated excessive demands’

Tehran has accused the United States of making “excessive demands,” Iranian media says, as US media reports raised the prospect that Washington is mulling new strikes and leaders of the Islamic Republic consider the latest proposal.

Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said in a call with UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres that Tehran was engaged in the diplomatic process despite “repeated betrayals of diplomacy and military aggression against Iran, along with contradictory positions and repeated excessive demands” by the United States, according to the reports.

Pakistan’s powerful army chief arrived in Tehran yesterday to bolster mediation and US President Donald Trump abruptly changed his plans, saying he would skip his son’s wedding to stay in Washington due to “circumstances pertaining to government,” fueling speculation that the situation had entered a sensitive stage.

Trump has described the stop-start negotiations this week as teetering on the “borderline” between renewed attacks and a deal to end the war, which began with US-Israeli strikes on Iran on February 28 and led to competing blockades around the strategic Strait of Hormuz that have roiled the global economy.

Weeks of negotiations since an April 8 ceasefire — including historic face-to-face talks hosted by Islamabad — have still not produced a permanent resolution or restored full access to the strait, choking vast quantities of global oil supply.

US media outlets Axios and CBS News, citing unnamed sources, reported the White House was considering strikes on Iran, although both added a final decision had not been made yet.