Rhetoric is hardening on both sides of the Iran-US standoff, with even Iranian analysts traditionally optimistic about diplomacy warning that relations are slipping back to “square one” as military and economic pressure intensifies.
Tehran media see diplomacy with Washington as increasingly precarious but not yet dead, with the two sides far apart over the sequencing of any deal and the window for compromise appearing to narrow.
US President Donald Trump said renewed large-scale bombing of Iran after the November midterm elections was "possible," while rejecting Tehran's latest ceasefire proposal as insufficient, according to an interview with TIME published on Thursday.
Continued contacts between Tehran and Washington, mediated by Qatar and Pakistan, have intensified debate inside Iran over whether diplomacy can still produce a deal despite President Donald Trump’s rejection of Tehran’s latest proposal and what should happen if it fails.
Iran’s receipt of Washington’s response to its seven-point proposal for ending the Strait of Hormuz crisis has sharpened divisions in Tehran over whether to pursue further compromise or intensify pressure on the United States.
Iran said on Tuesday it is awaiting a US response to its proposal for reopening the Strait of Hormuz, as regional oil flows continued to recover and the rial sank past 2.5 million to the dollar.
US President Donald Trump’s rejection of Iran’s proposal for a swift reopening of the Strait of Hormuz may say less about Washington’s opposition to a deal than about its changing assessment of Tehran’s most important bargaining chip.
Iran says a negotiated settlement remains the only way out of the war and is awaiting a formal US response to its latest proposal, despite President Donald Trump saying he has rejected Tehran’s offer.
Iran will not make concessions over its nuclear program even if the United States accepts Tehran’s proposal for reopening the Strait of Hormuz, Reuters reported Friday citing a senior Iranian official.
Talks between Iranian and US diplomats have continued in New York despite increasingly harsh rhetoric from both capitals, but the emerging dispute is less over whether to negotiate than over who must move first.
President Masoud Pezeshkian’s UN speech won unusual praise across Iran’s political establishment Thursday, but emerging details of negotiations with the United States could soon test the president’s careful balancing act.
US and Iranian negotiators are exploring a phased agreement that could reopen the Strait of Hormuz in exchange for Washington lifting its economic blockade of Iran, Reuters reported Thursday, citing Iranian, regional and Western sources.
Iran warned Wednesday that any renewed US attack would draw a stronger military response, even as officials from the two countries pursued a new diplomatic opening in New York that has triggered a backlash among hardliners in Tehran.
Any effort to end the Iran war faces a fundamental obstacle even after the resumption of US-Iran diplomacy in New York: apparent divisions within Tehran over who has the authority to negotiate and how far those negotiations can go.
Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian is facing competing pressure at home over whether to use his UN visit for direct diplomacy with US President Donald Trump or strike a more defiant tone as the two countries remain at war.
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian's presence in New York this week could provide an opportunity to revive diplomacy with the United States, but the path to any direct engagement is unclear as both sides continue to mix offers of a deal with threats of further escalation.
Iran has conveyed seven conditions to Washington for the start of any negotiations, Supreme National Security Council Secretary Mohsen Rezaei said Saturday, as President Donald Trump weighs whether to resume major attacks on Iran.
Iranian newspapers that agree on almost nothing agreed on Monday that the Muscat talks had collapsed. Kayhan, Shargh and Donya-ye Eghtesad all reported it, and the argument has already moved to what Tehran does next.
US President Donald Trump this week repeated the boldest promise of the Iran war, that when Washington is "finished," Iranians should take over their government. In February the sentence stunned. On Wednesday it barely registered, and the silence is the story.
Saudi Arabia faced growing pressure on two fronts Friday as drones launched from Iraq struck its East-West oil pipeline, prompting fresh Iraqi security measures, while Iran-aligned Houthis tightened their grip on Yemen’s Red Sea coast ahead of regional talks in Oman.
The Trump administration may be overstating Europe’s formal role in its “Economic D-Day” campaign against Iran, but years of economic and political convergence have increasingly aligned Europe with Washington.
The Strait of Hormuz has become one of the most dangerous points of leverage in the US-Iran war, but it may also offer Tehran and Washington their clearest route back to negotiations.