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Iran says it can reopen the Strait of Hormuz within two days if the United States accepts its conditions. That is a sharply shorter timetable than the seven days Iran first proposed in September through Qatar. Foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei made the claim at a briefing on Monday, 2 November, according to Euronews, which carried his remarks. Al Jazeera reported the same plan the same day, citing the Associated Press.
Baghaei described the shorter timeline as "another indication of Iran's good-faith approach", but he said everything depends on Washington. According to Euronews, he said messages were being exchanged with the US through mediators, and that Iran would discuss later stages only once its demands were met.
The conditions Tehran has set out, as Euronews describes them, include ending the war on all fronts, releasing Iranian assets held abroad, lifting sanctions on its oil sector and ending the US naval blockade of Iranian ports. Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, in an Al Jazeera interview released on Sunday, said Washington would also need to accept a new transit route through the strait agreed between Iran and Oman, reduce its troop numbers in the region and remove sanctions imposed since August.
Qatar and Pakistan are facilitating indirect talks, according to Al Jazeera's report. Euronews reports that Deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Gharibabadi travelled to Doha on Monday to help draft a preliminary agreement, with Qatar acting as mediator. The Associated Press, reporting through the Boston Globe, cited unnamed officials saying mediators were working on a framework in which Iran would stop attacks in the strait in return for the United States lifting its blockade of Iranian ports. Those officials were not named.
The sources read for this article do not report a formal US response to the two-day proposal. Al Jazeera quotes Trump saying the talks were "going fine". Euronews reports that he said on Saturday he still had to "take care" of one or two targets, including a site in central Iran that Washington suspects houses nuclear infrastructure, which Tehran denies.
The diplomacy is running alongside military activity. Euronews reports that US Central Command rejected Iran's account that its strikes hit only military targets, and said Iranian attacks had killed at least 20 people. Iran's foreign ministry said any attack on Iran would meet a powerful and immediate response. The AP report also said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was pressing Trump for another wave of strikes on Iran, according to officials, and that the White House did not respond to questions about a weekend call.
China is also drawing into the diplomacy. Euronews reports that Beijing plans to send a special envoy, Zhai Jun, to Iran, Oman and Saudi Arabia. Chinese state media, as reported by Euronews, said Beijing and Muscat jointly called on Washington and Tehran to return to the Islamabad memorandum of understanding.
The strait has been central to the conflict since the war began in late February. Euronews reports that Tehran has claimed control over the waterway and targets vessels that cross without its authorisation, and that the US has imposed a naval blockade on Iranian ports. Any reopening agreement would therefore bear on shipping through the strait, although none of the reports read for this article quantifies that effect.
Several things remain unknown. The sources do not show whether Washington will accept Iran's conditions, what a two-day timetable would require in practice, or whether the further strikes reported by AP will take place. Iran's conditions are presented as Tehran's own position, and the sources read do not show US acceptance of them. The officials cited by AP were not named, so their account has not been independently confirmed.
Sources
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