Iran has conveyed a proper set of circumstances to Washington by Qatari mediators for ending the battle with america, the nation’s safety chief tells Al Jazeera.
“We stay involved with the mediator Qatar, which has conveyed our circumstances to Washington with the intention of ending the battle. We’re awaiting President [Donald] Trump’s response,” Mohsen Rezaei advised Al Jazeera’s Tehran bureau chief, Nour Eddine Edghir, in an unique interview on Saturday.
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“Our circumstances are an finish to the battle on all fronts, the discharge of our frozen funds and an finish to the naval blockade,” mentioned Rezaei, who took over as secretary of Iran’s Supreme Nationwide Safety Council a couple of month in the past.
“It’s in Washington’s curiosity to just accept these circumstances. Trump’s threats is not going to obtain any outcomes. We’re ready for a decisive battle.”
Mediators Qatar and Pakistan have been working to re-establish negotiations between the 2 sides since their memorandum of understanding (MoU) expired final month. Regional international locations are additionally searching for an finish to the battle that started when the US and Israel launched strikes towards Iran in late February, killing Supreme Chief Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Rezaei didn’t rule out a brand new US strike towards Iran, calling the likelihood “very a lot on the playing cards” primarily based on his nation’s army assessments, whereas insisting Tehran was prepared.
He mentioned Iran’s army planning had shifted since two earlier rounds of battle and is now centered on US naval belongings, stretching from the Gulf to the Gulf of Oman and the Arabian Sea. Targets past that vary, in direction of the Indian Ocean, would fall exterior Iran’s attain, he added.
Iran’s ‘two-sided, twofold message’
Rezaei mentioned Iran had lately test-fired a multi-warhead antiship missile close to a US vessel or plane provider, with the warheads probably topic to additional growth.
He additionally mentioned the depth of any future Iranian response could be heavy, encompassing US bases within the area as in earlier rounds, in addition to US industrial pursuits and firms working regionally.
Requested whether or not the battle would finish quickly, he mentioned “in sensible phrases the battle remains to be occurring”, whereas stressing Tehran was working underneath a brand new technique “to carry this battle to an finish as quickly as attainable”.
Al Jazeera’s Tohid Asadi, reporting from Tehran, described Rezaei’s remarks as a part of the “two-sided, twofold message” Iran has maintained all through the battle – combining openness to diplomacy with continued battle preparations.
“On the one hand, readiness for diplomatic engagement … then again, he’s speaking about preparation for a decisive battle,” Asadi mentioned, noting that mediated talks with Qatar and Pakistan had been “underneath method”, providing “a constructive indication concerning the hopes, nevertheless slim” for renewed engagement.
David Des Roches, a former Pentagon director of Arabian Peninsula affairs, advised Al Jazeera that Washington was unlikely to see the phrases as a severe opening.
“At first look, in all probability not severe; they might be seen as give up,” Roches mentioned.
However he pointed to Iran’s obvious abandonment of an earlier demand for battle reparations as an indication of motion. “The very first thing you discover is that he’s dropped the demand for reparations, which the Iranians had made at one level,” he mentioned.
Nuclear weapons; Strait of Hormuz; Yemen’s battle
On the collapsed MoU, Rezaei rejected US accusations that Tehran violated the deal by hanging an oil tanker within the Strait of Hormuz, telling Al Jazeera’s Edghir that Iran’s actions got here solely after US strikes on Bandar Abbas and an Iranian surveillance platform there.
He mentioned any settlement, together with the MoU, required recourse to a dispute-resolution committee agreed between Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf and US Vice President JD Vance, which Washington unilaterally withdrew from.
On Iran’s nuclear programme, Rezaei mentioned Tehran has not determined to withdraw from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, regardless of having grounds to take action following the US and Israeli assaults, although he mentioned Washington’s conduct “might push Tehran into withdrawing”.
He mentioned Iran continues to honour a fatwa (decree) from the previous Supreme Chief Ruhollah Khomeini prohibiting nuclear weapons and that its doctrine stays unchanged. “However we have no idea what is going to occur sooner or later,” he mentioned, citing additional sanctions or a UN Safety Council referral of Iran’s nuclear file as potential future strain.
Rezaei denied Iranian involvement in Yemen’s battle, saying Tehran was prepared to assist mediate between fighters however didn’t exploit the battle “for its personal political ends”.
He additionally dismissed widespread hypothesis, together with inside Iran, that Tehran may transfer to shut the Bab al-Mandeb Strait to strain international vitality markets, saying the waterway “is a Yemeni matter” tied to the conduct of the Houthi motion, not Iran.
On the Strait of Hormuz, Rezaei mentioned Tehran had come inside “a brief step” of saying an settlement with Oman earlier than it was shelved, including {that a} deal between the 2 international locations stays prepared however might require regional endorsement earlier than being made public.
