Seeking talks, Iran offers to open Hormuz if US ends blockade, curtails military threat

Iran and the United States hinted on Tuesday at the prospect of reviving negotiations to end the months-old war, with a senior Iranian official suggesting that the Strait of Hormuz could soon be reopened, as the presidents of both countries were due at the UN General Assembly in New York.

The event would be the first attended by US President Donald Trump and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian since Israel and the US launched a joint operation against the Islamic Republic on February 28. Trump had said on Sunday he would be open to a meeting with the Iranian president.

A senior Iranian official said there were no plans for the two leaders to meet directly, but that Iran’s delegation had full authority to revive talks.

Iran could reopen the Strait of Hormuz to Gulf shipping within seven days if the US fulfilled Tehran’s demands to ease military pressure and lift an American blockade on Iranian ports, the Iranian official said, adding that Iran had conveyed its latest proposal to Washington via mediators last week.

“The US needs to announce that it wants to resolve the issue diplomatically, make that official, and then agree on a timeline for how the process will move forward,” the official said. “The UN General Assembly is a golden opportunity for the US to return to diplomacy.”

Secretary of State Marco Rubio told NBC’s “Today” show the US was open to speaking with the Iranians, “especially if it has the prospects of leading to something positive and ultimately achieving the goal of what this is all about.”

Trump was reported to have told FOX News on Sunday that he’d be “open” to meeting Pezeshkian on the sidelines of the UNGA.

No face-to-face meetings between Iran and the United States are known to have taken place since July, when an agreement on an interim deal to end the war collapsed just weeks after it was signed by Trump and Pezeshkian.

A ceasefire has largely been in place since April, and has halted fire between Israel and Iran — with the exception of a daylong flare-up in June — but fighting between the Islamic Republic and the US has erupted periodically over the last few months.

Asked by Fox and Friends about the prospect of a meeting between the presidents, Rubio said of Trump: “He’s a businessman who comes from the world of practicality and common sense. And common sense tells you there’s no harm in engaging and talking to someone.”

Reminders of hardline positions

But Rubio also noted that Pezeshkian is subordinate under Iran’s ruling system to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, “and the supreme leader is a radical Shia cleric and we need to remember that when we talk.”

“The central issue here is Iran is run by lunatic clerics,” Rubio told Fox. “These people can never have nuclear weapons.”

In a reminder of Iran’s firm position so far, Parliament Speaker Mohammed Bagher Ghalibaf, who headed Iran’s negotiating team at previous talks, said on Tuesday that Iran would never surrender: “Trump must understand that he cannot impose his power on the Iranian people and its armed forces.”

And the spokesman for Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, Hossein Mohebi, warned that Tehran would “undoubtedly intensify” its response if the US were to launch new attacks on the Islamic Republic.

“If they act recklessly and history repeats itself, our resistance will undoubtedly intensify, bolstered by the experience we have gained. This time, we will not merely retaliate; we will adopt an offensive posture, and America will come to regret its actions, suffering greater humiliation than ever before,” said Mohebi in an interview with AFP.

Mohebi added that the United States had tried to establish contact with the IRGC, but they had rebuffed the effort.

“The Americans have tried to contact us but we refuse any such contact. Our dealings with the enemy — as long as they remain hostile — are conducted solely through arms,” said Mohebi, adding that diplomacy is handled by Iran’s foreign ministry.

Trump is due to meet on Tuesday with leaders of the six Gulf Arab states: Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, Oman, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

All are keen to restore shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, which prior to the war handled about 20 percent of the world’s daily crude oil and liquefied natural gas supply, but are wary of giving their longstanding rival Iran too much power. All apart from Oman also host huge US military bases that have come under repeated Iranian attack throughout the war.

Qatari proposal on the table

On the table at the Gulf states’ meeting with Trump is a Qatari proposal for a framework to bring Iran and the Arab Gulf states into a common security architecture, regional sources said. One source said Iran was reviewing the proposal.

Speaking at a Qatar Economic Forum in New York on Sunday, Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani said any such arrangement would need to provide security guarantees for the Gulf states and expand economic interdependence with Iran.

“Lasting security cannot be built through repeated cycles of escalations and retaliation, or arrangements that leave any state permanently exposed to insecurity,” Al Thani said.