Araghchi: Iran Ready for Diplomacy or Defense, Talks Advance

US President Donald Trump said on Sunday that he had held a "very good" conversation with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in which the two discussed Iran. On the same day, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said talks through Qatari mediators were moving forward but had not produced an agreement with Washington. He added that Tehran was prepared for either diplomacy or military defense, depending on Washington's "rationality."

"Consultations with the mediators regarding the two-day plan are continuing and moving toward implementation, but we have not yet reached a definitive conclusion," Araghchi said. "Reaching a conclusion depends on the answers the other side provides to our questions." He stressed that no direct negotiations with American officials were taking place.

The two-day plan concerns the Strait of Hormuz. In an interview on Saturday, Araghchi told Al Jazeera that Iranian and Qatari negotiators had drawn up a proposal to reopen the waterway within two days of a potential agreement with Washington, The Jerusalem Post reported. Ynet reported that shipping would resume once the United States fulfilled several Iranian conditions. In an interview posted to his Telegram channel, Araghchi said he hoped Washington would opt for "diplomacy over other paths."

The foreign minister set out those conditions to Al Jazeera on Friday. "Our conditions include lifting the sanctions imposed following the Islamabad memorandum and reducing US forces in the region," he said. "We demand the restoration of oil waivers and the release of all our frozen funds, including those held in Qatar." He also issued a warning: "We do not rule out any possibility regarding the outbreak of war, and we are prepared for all scenarios. We have upgraded our weaponry, addressed our vulnerabilities, and tested new arms; our forces are at the highest level of readiness."

On Thursday, Admiral Brad Cooper, commander of US Central Command (CENTCOM), briefed Trump at the White House on potential operations against Tehran. On Sunday, Trump predicted the conflict would be over soon. "We've had such a victory and we'll put it away very soon, one way or the other. Either they'll make a deal or we'll just end it, end it the, I guess you could say, maybe the easy way," he said.

Between government formation and the Iranian threat (Photo: Shutterstock/Yonatan Zindel/Miriam Alster/Flash90)

In the strait itself, the navy of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said on Sunday that two oil tankers had exploded after hitting mines while using what it termed an "unauthorized route," Iranian state media reported. In a separate move announced through the state-run IRNA news agency, Tehran labeled Britain's Royal Navy and Royal Air Force terrorist organizations and branded the MI6 intelligence service a hostile entity. Iran's Foreign Ministry charged that London had backed US-Israeli attacks on Iranian territory by supplying bases and logistical support.

Trump told a rally in Iowa on Sunday that Iran would at some point get "the hammer," and named the suspected Pickaxe Mountain nuclear site as a target. Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesperson, asked whether Tehran could accept moving its 60% enriched uranium abroad, answered with a single word: "No."