📌 Tehran, IRNA — Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baqaei says Iran will convey its additional points on a US counter-proposal to an earlier Iranian plan for ending the war after conducting the necessary assessments.
Baqaei made the remarks during his weekly press briefing in Tehran on Sunday, in response to a question about Iran’s response to Washington’s counter-proposal to Tehran’s seven-day plan for opening the Strait of Hormuz.
The seven-day plan was conveyed to the US through Qatari mediators two weeks ago, while an Iranian delegation headed by Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi was in New York for the 81st session of the UN General Assembly. Washington delivered its response and counter-proposal a week later, while the Iranian delegation was in Doha on its way back home from New York. The Iranian government confirmed last Wednesday that it had received the US response.
“Our positions were conveyed to the mediator during the brief stop we made in Doha on our way back. The proposals put forward by the Americans are more or less in line with their previous positions and specifically concern nuclear issues. We made it clear that, at this stage, our focus is on the issue of the Strait of Hormuz,” the spokesperson said.
Restoring security to the Strait of Hormuz requires the US to take specific steps, including ending disruptions to Iran’s commercial shipping and interventionist measures and sanctions, including those imposed after the June 18 memorandum of understanding, he noted.
“The considerations raised by the Americans and conveyed to us by the Qatari mediator were discussed at that meeting, and our considerations were also addressed in return. We will conduct the necessary reviews regarding some of the details and will convey our additional points to the other side as well,” Baqaei said.
He reiterated that the Strait of Hormuz was secure before the US and Israel launched their war of aggression on Iran on February 28. Baqaei stressed that Iran uses every opportunity for diplomacy to prevent an escalation of tensions and restore peace, even if that opportunity is grim.
“The reality is that previous experience and the US stance show that the other side is not serious in using diplomacy,” he said.
The spokesperson meanwhile rejected news reports claiming that Iran, in its seven-day plan, had proposed sanctions relief in return for the resumption of inspections by the International Atomic Energy Agency at Iranian nuclear sites.
“We did not, in principle, enter into discussions on the nuclear issue in exchange for sanctions relief. Our task was to communicate our conditions, which we conveyed to the mediators in the form of a proposal that came to be known as the “seven-day plan,” he explained.
Baqaei also dismissed US President Donald Trump’s claim that he does not know who is negotiating on behalf of Iran. The spokesperson called the claim baseless, saying that no country has the same level of cohesion and order in decision-making as Iran.
“The Americans know very well how decisions are made in the Islamic Republic of Iran,” Baqaei said, adding that the problem instead lies in the US, where different parties undermine each other’s roles and contradictory approaches are a major issue.
The Foreign Ministry spokesperson also addressed other issues raised by reporters during his press conference, highlighting the Islamic Republic’s positions on those issues as follows:
Other issues raised at the press conference included Iran-Lebanon relations . . .
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