TEHRAN, Sept. 23 — Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei said on Wednesday the country’s positions and conditions for “reviving diplomacy” were clearly conveyed to the United States the previous day through Qatar’s mediation.
In a post on social media platform X, Baghaei said a new round of “message exchange and clarification” took place between Iran and the United States on the sidelines of the 81st session of the United Nations General Assembly in New York on Tuesday.
Baghaei listed some of Tehran’s conditions as the “cessation of aggressive U.S. actions, including the naval blockade and economic terrorism; ending the war on all fronts; release of Iran’s frozen or restricted assets; and acceptance of a safe shipping route (in the Strait of Hormuz) in the manner agreed upon between the two coastal governments (namely Iran and Oman).”
Citing its exclusive source, Iran’s state-run IRIB news agency reported Tuesday that Iranian Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi met earlier in the day with U.S. presidential envoy Steve Witkoff and conveyed the country’s “decisive positions” on reopening the Strait of Hormuz to the United States.
Secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council Mohsen Rezaei told IRIB TV on Wednesday that unless the United States fulfills Iran’s conditions, there will be no talks between Tehran and Washington and the Strait of Hormuz will not be opened.
On June 18, the United States and Iran signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on ending the war in the region on all fronts, including Lebanon. Under the MoU, they were scheduled to hold negotiations within 60 days, which ended on Aug. 17, to reach a final agreement, but the fate of the talks remains unclear following a series of recent escalations between the two countries.
Following U.S.-Israeli strikes on Iran on Feb. 28, Tehran restricted passage through the Strait of Hormuz, while U.S. forces imposed a naval blockade targeting vessels traveling to or from Iranian ports. (Namibia Daily News / Xinhua)
