Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian has said now is the right time to end the ongoing deadlock with the United States and reach a lasting agreement, describing the current situation as “neither war nor peace” and calling for a swift end to it. He made the remarks amid efforts, through mediators, to reach a deal to end the war. BD Global Times could not independently verify the accounts.
In an interview with state media on Saturday (8 August), Pezeshkian said Iran was now in a strong position and that this was the right time to reach a deal with the United States. There was unity and strength within the country, he said, and Iran was being seen as victorious and strong in this war.
He said a channel between Iran and Washington should have been created early on to address breaches of a memorandum of understanding. Expressing hope of finding a solution through talks under Omani mediation, he said Iran might soon be able to emerge from this “neither war nor peace” state.
The comments came as Iran presses to reach a deal with Oman on reopening the Strait of Hormuz. Since the United States and Israel began the war on Iran on 28 February, Tehran has effectively kept the strategic strait closed. More than 3,400 people have been killed in the war so far, according to the accounts.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said talks with Oman over the strait’s transit and management had reached a final stage. Last week Iran and Oman made significant progress on setting up a temporary route under which Iran would oversee ships entering the Gulf and Oman would control ships leaving. But Araghchi made clear that reopening the strait depended on other conditions being met and on compensation for the breach of the memorandum signed with the United States in June. He confirmed there were no direct talks between the two, only messages exchanged through mediators.
Iran’s Supreme National Security Council has added several new conditions for reopening the strait and finally ending the war, which could further complicate the talks. The council’s secretary, Mohammad Bagher Zolghadr, said the strait would stay closed until Washington corrected its behaviour. The six conditions include an end to US threats and insults against Iran and a permanent halt to attacks on Iran and its allies in Lebanon, Palestine, Yemen and Iraq, as well as the lifting of the US naval blockade, the withdrawal of US naval and air forces from the region, compensation for “two imposed wars,” the lifting of global sanctions and the unconditional return of Iran’s seized assets.
Several major obstacles remain to finalising a deal, chief among them control of the Strait of Hormuz. Although the Iran-Oman arrangement could allow shipping to resume, the United States strongly opposes Iran’s exclusive control of the waterway and the proposed fees, while Iran sees control of shipping as a major bargaining tool.
বাংলায় মূল প্রতিবেদন পড়ুন · Read the original Bengali report