Iran’s Araghchi meets Qatari mediators as US calls for nuclear talks

Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi has met with Qatari mediators in New York to discuss a proposal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, while a United States official said there would be no agreement to end the war unless Tehran’s nuclear programme is addressed.

Araghchi told Iranian state media on Monday that the Qatari mediators would carry the ideas discussed at the meeting to the US and that he hoped to receive Washington’s final response by Tuesday.

“We talked about ideas and how to find solutions to fulfil Iran’s conditions and how to implement those conditions,” he said. “They had some ideas, and we had a discussion that they will also present to the American side.”

Asked whether he would stay in New York to await the reply, Araghchi said he would fly to Tehran within hours.

“Whenever the Qataris have a response, they know how to get it to us,” he said.

He described the meetings as part of an existing exchange of messages through Qatari and Pakistani mediators, which he said had taken on “a more serious form” since Iran submitted its proposal.

The Iranian plan , announced on Friday at the United Nations General Assembly in New York City, calls on the US to release frozen Iranian funds, lift sanctions and end its naval blockade of Iranian ports. Araghchi said those steps could be completed within four or five days, allowing the strait to reopen and negotiations on a final agreement, including on Iran’s nuclear programme, to begin by the seventh day.

US President Donald Trump, however, rejected the proposal on Saturday, calling it “unacceptable”.

The US official, who spoke to Al Jazeera, said indirect discussions were continuing.

The talks were “positive and constructive”, the official said, but stressed there would be no agreement unless Iran’s nuclear programme is addressed. The official said Trump is willing to relieve sanctions and release Iran’s frozen funds in exchange for progress on nuclear issues.

“Iran has indicated they are flexible on the nuclear issues, but the sides still remain apart on the timing of the commitments and who takes which steps first,” the official said.

The official also expressed scepticism of Iran, saying it had broken the memorandum of understanding signed in June by firing on commercial vessels. Tehran denies the accusation and says it was Washington that broke its commitments by failing to halt Israel’s attacks on Lebanon and by seeking to establish alternate shipping routes through the Strait of Hormuz.

Iran had closed the strait, which handled roughly 20 percent of the world’s oil and gas supplies before the war, shortly after the US and Israel launched their offensive on February 28. Iranian attacks on vessels since have sharply curtailed shipping, and oil prices have risen above $100 a barrel.

Even so, crude exports from major Middle East producers rebounded in September to 12.8 million barrels per day, their highest level since the war began, the Reuters news agency reported, citing data from the maritime intelligence firm Kpler.

That is still well below the 18.8 million bpd exported in February.

Some ships have used the US military-supervised route hugging the coast of Oman, travelling at night with tracking systems off and offloading oil to tankers outside the strait. Admiral Brad Cooper, the head of US Central Command, said on Saturday that American forces had assisted 2,000 transits and more than 1 billion barrels of oil in recent months.

The US has also imposed a blockade on Iranian ports and threatened secondary sanctions against airports and companies that do business with Iranian airlines. The United Arab Emirates, Iraq and Oman have already cancelled related flights.

Speaking to reporters on Monday, Trump said US officials had also spoken with mediators but insisted that Washington would prevail.

“We’re going to win,” he said. “It’s going to go pretty quickly.” He added that gas prices would fall once the US won the war.

In Tehran, officials struck a defiant tone.

Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei, in a message marking the Iran-Iraq War and Israel’s killing of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in 2024, said that the days of foreign domination were over.

“Having suffered painful blows from our valiant combatants and the guardians of the Strait of Hormuz, they [the enemy] dare not venture beyond the Arabian Sea,” Khamenei said in the message carried by Iranian media.

“Whenever they have risked doing so, they have only inflicted harm upon themselves, and the time is fast approaching when the Arabian Sea, too, will be cleared of their presence.”

Major-General Ali Abdollahi, the armed forces chief of staff, meanwhile, warned that Iran and allied forces would deliver a “decisive and devastating response” to any threat against the country.

Rear Admiral Habibollah Sayyari insisted that the Strait of Hormuz remains closed and said Iranian forces were ready to prevent enemy forces from entering the country.