SAINT PETERSBURG: Iran’s top diplomat blamed Washington on Monday for the failure of Middle East peace talks during a visit to Russia, where President Vladimir Putin promised him Moscow’s support in bringing the war to a close.
Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi was in Saint Petersburg on the fourth leg of a whirlwind diplomatic tour, having sandwiched a trip to Oman in between two visits to main mediator Pakistan over the past few days.
Islamabad played host to the first and only round of unsuccessful talks between Washington and Tehran, and Araghchi’s visit had fanned hopes for fresh negotiations over the weekend, until US President Donald Trump scrapped a planned trip by his envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner.
“The US approaches caused the previous round of negotiations, despite progress, to fail to reach its goals because of the excessive demands,” Araghchi said Monday.
After nixing his emissaries’ trip, Trump told Fox News that if Iran wanted talks, “they can call us” — though he has said the cancelation does not signal a return to hostilities.
Following his meeting with Araghchi, Putin voiced his commitment to the two countries’ “strategic relationship,” telling the visiting diplomat: “For our part, we will do everything that serves your interests, the interests of all the people of the region, so that peace can be achieved as soon as possible.”
In a sign that back-channel diplomatic efforts were ongoing, the Fars news agency said Iran had passed “written messages” to the Americans via Pakistan spelling out red lines, including nuclear issues and the Strait of Hormuz.
Fars news agency said the messages were not part of formal negotiations, however.
US media outlet Axios — citing a US official and two other sources with knowledge of the matter — reported on Sunday that Iran had sent a new proposal to end the war centered on reopening the Strait of Hormuz and ending a US naval blockade there, with nuclear negotiations postponed for a later stage.
Iranian state news agency IRNA cited the report without denying it.
Trump was expected to hold a meeting with his top national security advisers on Monday to discuss the stalled talks and how to proceed, Axios and ABC news reported.
‘Global issue’
The ceasefire in the US-Israeli war with Iran has so far held, but its economic shock waves have continued to reverberate globally.
Iran has blockaded Hormuz, cutting off flows of oil, gas and fertilizer and sending prices soaring.
In response, the US has imposed a blockade of Iranian ports in the waterway and beyond.
Trump is facing domestic pressure to find an off-ramp as fuel prices rise, with midterm elections due in November and polls showing the war is unpopular among Americans.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, however, have said they have no intention of lifting their market-rattling blockade.
Ebrahim Azizi, head of the national security commission in Iran’s parliament, told state television Monday that a proposed law for managing the strait would make the Islamic republic’s armed forces the overseeing authority, with financial gains from the waterway to be paid in Iranian rial.
The subject of the strait was on the agenda during Araghchi’s trip to Oman, which lies on the other side of the waterway from Iran.
“Naturally, as the two coastal countries of this strait, we must speak with each other so that our common interests are secured,” Araghchi said from Saint Petersburg, calling it an “important global issue.”
Iran and Oman enjoy warm ties, though the Islamic republic’s relations with its other neighbors have historically been frostier, a situation exacerbated by Tehran’s barrages of missile and drone attacks on Gulf states during the war.
