Iran signals wider talks as Trump threatens new strikes

Iran is widening diplomacy while President Donald Trump threatens renewed large-scale strikes. President Masoud Pezeshkian said Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei had authorized talks on previously restricted issues, while Qatar's Foreign Ministry spokesperson said Doha was facilitating exchanges of proposals between Tehran and Washington, according to NIAC Insights. A senior Iranian official told Reuters that Tehran will not reopen the Strait of Hormuz or negotiate until Washington meets seven conditions, including lifting sanctions, unfreezing assets and ending the naval blockade of Iranian ports.

Pezeshkian told provincial governors that Khamenei had authorized discussions on matters previously considered off-limits, without identifying the subjects, and said another war would benefit neither Iran nor the region, NIAC Insights reported. Qatar's Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani spoke by phone with Trump on Friday about narrowing differences, preventing escalation, maintaining freedom of navigation and protecting energy supplies, according to Qatar's official news agency. NIAC Insights, citing Reuters, said Tehran had sent a new nuclear proposal through Qatar and that mediators expected responses within about 36 hours; the contents were not disclosed.

Mohsen Rezaei, secretary of the Supreme National Security Council, said after a two-hour meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow that Iran would not enter formal talks or reopen the Strait of Hormuz until Washington met the seven conditions, including compensation for wartime damage, NIAC Insights reported. He said Putin expressed readiness to help end the war and warned that prolonging a "neither war nor peace" situation was not in Iran's interest, but offered no specific settlement proposal, according to Rezaei. The Moscow talks also covered proposed gas pipelines from Russia to Iran, and Putin welcomed an earlier four-party meeting in Tehran involving military representatives from Iran, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Turkey.

Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi discussed restoring maritime traffic through the Strait of Hormuz in calls with counterparts in Saudi Arabia, Oman, Egypt, Turkey, Jordan and Kuwait, and Oman's Foreign Ministry said possible joint mechanisms to protect shipping were discussed, according to NIAC Insights. China said its Middle East envoy, Zhai Jun, would visit Iran, Oman and Saudi Arabia. The USS Theodore Roosevelt carrier strike group was reportedly moving toward the Middle East, potentially joining two other US carrier groups, while Trump confirmed an attack on Iranian air-defense facilities on Qeshm Island that US officials described as a response to a threat against a US aircraft, according to NIAC Insights.

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