Tehran, Aug 4:
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei said Monday that negotiations between Iran and Oman are focused on reaching an agreement on designating a “temporary” route to ensure safe shipping in the Strait of Hormuz.
He said the talks are centred on a round-trip corridor, not two or three separate routes, and the intermediate route will be used temporarily until a permanent one is finalised, Xinhua News Agency reported.
The waterway’s closure stems not from differences between Iran and Oman, but from US-Israeli “military aggression” against Iran, Baghaei said, adding the strait’s status will stay unchanged as long as Washington continues its “malicious” actions against the country.
Baghaei also said at the press conference the country will take necessary action to hold Ukraine to account for its recent attack on an Iranian vessel.
US President Donald Trump said new talks to wind down the war in Iran will start Monday afternoon, after announcing he is holding off on new massive strikes he had threatened to unleash on the country.
The talks will seek to end the conflict and revive stalled cargo traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, which is a crucial waterway through which about a fifth of all traded oil and natural gas passed before the war.
Iranian state media quoted the country’s foreign ministry as saying Tehran was not currently holding negotiations with the United States.
Trump said Sunday he decided not to carry out major strikes against Iran at the urging of Gulf allies Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. He said a plan was in place for US forces to carry out “the biggest attack since World War II,” but he decided to give diplomacy more time after hearing from key Gulf leaders, as well as at the request of unnamed Iranian officials.
“Now what we’re doing is we’re talking to them in the form of a negotiation. It begins tomorrow afternoon,” he said. Iran’s foreign ministry spokesman, Esmail Baghaei, said Monday that Tehran was not currently holding negotiations with the United States. He said ongoing talks were with Oman, the country that lies on the other side of the Strait of Hormuz, and were focused only on establishing a temporary route for safe navigation through the strait.
Iran’s judiciary said it executed two men on Monday after convicting them of spying for Israel during both last year’s 12-day war and the ongoing conflict.
The judiciary’s Mizan news agency identified the two as Omid Behzad and Pouria Safvat, who were accused of providing military coordinates, images and other intelligence used in attacks on Iranian targets. It did not specify where the executions took place.
Last week, Iran publicly hanged two men convicted of killing four police officers during nationwide anti-government protests in January.