By Sumayya
ISLAMABAD: Iran has given to Qatari and Pakistani peace talkers a two-day plan to open up the important Strait of Hormuz again, Iran’s foreign minister has shared. This shows a possible successful step in diplomacy to bring back ship travel through one of the earth’s most vital energy paths after days of being blocked.
The Strait of Hormuz, which is a tight water path between Iran and Oman, used to carry about one-fifth of the world’s oil and a large amount of global liquid natural gas sales.
Tehran has kept its tight grip on the water path since the United States started its war against Iran in late February, while Washington keeps up a matching block of Iranian ports.
After a temporary peace deal in June fell apart and back-and-forth attacks started again, Iran showed its offer to open Hormuz in the middle of September and later confirmed getting an answer from the United States.
“The plan we are looking at is the plan that Iran showed at the start, called the Iran seven-day plan, where Iran wrote its rules for opening the Strait of Hormuz again,” Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi told the Al-Jazeera news network on Sunday.
“Our Qatari and Pakistani friends did many talks on this problem, and they suggested ideas to make the Iran seven-day plan easier to do and easier for people to accept,” he said.
“I can say that we have now gotten to a two-day plan. This means that on the first day, America will perform a group of actions, and on the second day, the Strait of Hormuz will be opened up again, and ship movement will go back to how it was before.”
The statement comes during new political work to stop any restarting of the war.
Qatari peace talkers arrived in Tehran on Friday, and U.S. Vice President JD Vance sent a letter to Iran’s safety leader Mohsen Rezaei.
“I read the letter,” said Rezaei, who is the head of Iran’s top national safety group, in a video shown on Iranian television.
“I have not answered yet. The way they talk has completely changed,” he added, calling that a good sign without sharing more information.
Rezaei promised that Iran would keep blocking the Strait of Hormuz until its rules, including letting go of locked money, were followed.
Qatar and Pakistan have been working as middle talkers between the fighting sides, but the discussions have not made a long-lasting agreement yet.
President Donald Trump stated on Saturday that the United States has destroyed a large part of Iran’s military but still needs to handle one or two targets, while Tehran warned of payback if they are attacked.
Trump maintained that talks with Iran to finish the war were going fine but added that they are not very dependable people.
Iran’s top leader warned the United States and Israel on Saturday against starting a new attack, following warnings that they could start bombing again after important elections in both lands.
“Any level or kind of danger must be answered with an immediate, powerful, and legally unlimited payback across the map,” Iran’s top leader Mojtaba Khamenei told high military leaders, according to a report.
Khamenei also ordered military leaders to update Iran’s attack list to include all types of real and hidden properties owned by the American-Zionist enemy.
This was the first reported talk between Khamenei and the highest military leaders.
The top leader has not been seen by the public since before he took power in March, following the killing of his father Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in U.S. and Israeli attacks.
