Cairo, July 28:
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 US nor Iran reported carrying out any attacks for three straight days.
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.
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.
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei said the United States is exchanging messages with Iran through mediators, including Pakistan and Qatar, according to Iranian media reports, citing his remarks in an interview with Austrian broadcaster ORF.
Baghaei stressed in the interview that for any dialogue to be formed, the “proper ground” must be prepared. He accused Washington of violating “all its provisions” in practice under the memorandum of understanding (MoU) between Iran and the United States.
Earlier, US President Donald Trump said that Iran was seeking talks with Washington but insisted Tehran would never be allowed to acquire a nuclear weapon, using the White House Correspondents’ Dinner to reiterate his administration’s position on one of its top foreign policy priorities.
He said the United States would not compromise on Iran’s nuclear ambitions. “They cannot have a nuclear weapon,” Trump said.
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.