The soap opera continues. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said he expected to receive an official response from the United States on Tuesday (September 29) to Tehran’s conditions for reopening the Strait of Hormuz, state media reported.
Indirect discussions on the war in the Middle East have been held for a week, under the mediation of Qatar, on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York, between American envoys and Iranian diplomacy.
The Qatari mediators “presented ideas and we discussed them. They must raise the issue again with the American side, after which the final response from the United States will be transmitted to us through the Qatari mediator”, indicated the head of Iranian diplomacy Monday evening. “The Qataris hope this will be done by tomorrow.”
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“Attention is currently focused only on the Strait of Hormuz, and its reopening is conditional on compliance with certain requirements that we have communicated to the other party,” he added before his return to Tehran scheduled for Tuesday with the Iranian delegation.
The Strait of Hormuz is at the heart of the conflict, which began at the end of February with American and Israeli strikes against Iran.
Before the start of the war, a fifth of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas flows passed through this strategic sea route.
Calm for a few weeks
Tehran imposed a blockade of the Strait of Hormuz after the outbreak of hostilities, prompting Washington to respond with its own blockade of Iranian ports.
As a precondition for lifting its blockade, Iran is demanding a seven-day ceasefire across the Middle East, including in Lebanon, where its ally Hezbollah is clashing with Israeli forces.
It also calls for the unfreezing of assets held abroad, the lifting of sanctions hitting its oil sector as well as the end of the American naval blockade.
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On the ground, however, a lull has been observed in recent weeks: the United States has not struck Iran since September 1, even though ships are regularly targeted in the Strait of Hormuz.
But at the same time, the United States has strengthened its economic war against Tehran, placing all Iranian airlines under sanctions and vowing to be intractable towards foreign companies that provide them with assistance.
When these sanctions came into force on Wednesday, the main Iranian airlines were forced to cancel international flights when the main regional services, including the Gulf countries, took ban measures.
With AFP
