Cairo: Mediators have achieved progress in efforts to get the United States and Iran back to negotiations and avert an all-out war in the Middle East, two regional officials said Monday, with a pause in attacks coming after a period of rapidly escalating tensions.
The comments came after neither the US nor Iran reported carrying out any attacks for three straight days – a respite after about two weeks of sustained bombardments that had led to increasing fears of a return to all-out war.
The two regional officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive regional talks, said mediators led by Qatar and Pakistan were working to bridge the gap between Washington and Tehran to return to an interim ceasefire deal that had been largely undermined by recent exchanges of fire.
No strikes over weekend
The US has paused attacks after targeting Iranian coastal areas and infrastructure in a nearly two-week escalation sparked by Iran’s firing at ships trying to transit the Strait of Hormuz, a crucial waterway for global oil shipments. The Pentagon did not respond to questions.
US President Donald Trump is giving talks some space. He’s giving it a little bit of room, Mike Waltz, the US ambassador to the United Nations, told Fox News.
We’ve had both Oman and Iran, and a number of our other negotiators, engaged at every level, from the most senior levels all the way down to the technical level over the past few weeks, and particularly in the past few days.
Waltz dismissed the idea that the US stockpile of interceptors crucial in defending against Iranian attacks is running low, but experts have questioned how long both the US and Iran can afford to keep up attacks.
Since the US has halted attacks for the past two nights, Iran has as well, its army spokesperson told Iran’s state TV Sunday. Tehran in recent days has counterattacked against countries in the region hosting US military forces, killing at least three service members at a base in Jordan and one in Iraq.
Regional officials cite progress in talks
One of the regional officials who spoke to AP Monday described the progress made in mediation efforts as significant.
He said mediators were working with Iran and Oman on a mechanism for managing vessels’ transit through the Strait of Hormuz, which was the trigger for the latest round of strikes and counterstrikes between Iran and the US.
Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson, Esmail Baghaei, said during a news conference in Tehran Monday that mediators were conveying messages but that no direct negotiations were being held with the US.
Mediators may convey messages to us from the American side regarding ongoing developments in the region. But at present, we have no negotiations with the American side, Baghaei said.
He said several rounds of talks had already been held between Iran and Oman, which lies on the other side of the Strait of Hormuz, Friday and Saturday on how to manage ship traffic through the waterway.
The objective is for Iran and Oman, as the two coastal states, to develop mechanisms to ensure safe navigation through the Strait of Hormuz while respecting the sovereign rights and sovereignty of both coastal states, as well as Iran’s security and national interests, Baghaei said.
However, he stressed that the situation in the Strait of Hormuz has not changed and that the waterway remains closed.
Tehran has asserted that the interim deal with the US allows it to manage shipping on the waterway for now, and it has objected to US efforts to support a route through the strait that passes close to Oman instead. The strait was considered an international waterway before the war.
The US military Saturday said its recently reimposed naval blockade against Iran continued, with a dozen commercial ships redirected, two disabled and two boarded.
US forces remain highly vigilant, focused, lethal, and ready, it added.
The 60-day period that began when the interim deal was signed by both countries in mid-June is now well into its second half, and major issues that were meant to be negotiated – notably Iran’s nuclear program at the heart of tensions – remain set aside as mediators try to keep both sides talking.
Shipping traffic on the strait is at 3-week low
Concerns continue about shipping through the strait and now also through another crucial waterway in the region, the Bab al-Mandeb strait to the Red Sea. Iranian-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen last week threatened a blockade of Saudi shipping there, and fired on at least one Saudi tanker, setting it alight.
Global energy supplies and the economy remain in the balance as gasoline prices have risen again.
Commercial shipping traffic in the Strait of Hormuz was at a three-week low, a maritime body overseen by the U.S. Navy said Sunday, adding that no new attacks had been confirmed in the past 72 hours. It said traffic remained steady through the Bab el-Mandeb.
Netanyahu says he ‘fully’ backs Trump’s efforts
Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu plans to travel to the United States and meet with Trump in Washington Tuesday, his office has said. They last met in Washington in February, weeks before they launched the war on Iran that killed senior leaders including Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
The Iranian-backed Hezbollah fired at Israel two days after the war began, and Israel responded with airstrikes and ground forces in southern Lebanon. Since then, the US has supported landmark direct talks between Lebanon and Israel to try to calm that front and find a way to disarm Hezbollah.
