Iran confirmed Monday that it is engaged in intensive indirect negotiations with the United States, facilitated by regional mediators, in an effort to avert a fresh escalation of the eight-month-old conflict ahead of Tuesday’s U.S. midterm elections.
Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi stated in a video interview with the official IRNA news agency that Qatar and Pakistan are playing active mediating roles. The diplomatic push follows a reported letter from U.S. Vice President JD Vance to Mohsen Rezaei, secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, marking the highest-level diplomatic contact between the two nations in months.
The negotiations run parallel to broader international diplomatic efforts. Chinese President Xi Jinping discussed the war with Oman’s Sultan Haitham bin Tariq in Beijing on Monday, while Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi met with Ali Bagheri, deputy secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council. Simultaneously, Russian President Vladimir Putin discussed the conflict by telephone with Iranian security chief Mohsen Rezaei.
The diplomatic activity coincides with U.S. midterm elections where voter dissatisfaction over the ongoing war and soaring fuel prices has created political pressure for President Donald Trump’s Republican administration, with Democrats eyeing potential control of Congress. Despite the talks, Trump maintained a hardline stance during a campaign rally, warning that at “some point we’re going to have to give them the hammer” and pointing to suspected sites in central Iran, including Pickaxe mountain, which Tehran insists is not a nuclear facility.
Iran’s First Vice President Mohammad Reza Aref characterized the messages arriving from Washington through intermediaries as an acknowledgment of Iranian resilience, stating that the U.S. had failed to achieve its objectives in past confrontations.
At the center of the current diplomatic discussions is the vital Strait of Hormuz energy corridor, which has remained blockaded by Iran, sending global oil prices surging before dropping more than six percent on Monday following news of the talks. A senior Iranian official indicated that Tehran is prepared to reopen the strait within two days provided Washington meets a series of conditions.
Foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei told reporters that the reopening plan builds on proposals submitted in September, which demand an end to the war on all fronts, the unfreezing of Iranian assets, the lifting of oil sanctions, and the cessation of a U.S. counter-blockade against Iranian ports. In an interview with released Sunday, Foreign Minister Araghchi added that Washington must also accept a newly negotiated transit route through the strait agreed upon between Iran and Oman, lift recent sanctions, and reduce American troop levels in the region.
Baghaei warned that any new military aggression by the United States would provoke an immediate, powerful, and comprehensive response from Tehran, emphasizing that the restoration of security in the Strait of Hormuz depends entirely on Washington’s willingness to accept Iranian terms.
