Iran sets seven conditions for talks with US, Rezaei says

Iran has conveyed seven conditions to Washington for starting negotiations, Iran’s top security official Mohsen Rezaei has said, signalling that diplomatic channels remain open despite continued hostility between the two sides. Rezaei, secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, said Tehran had conveyed its conditions to the United States through Qatari mediators and was awaiting President Donald Trump’s response. “Iran has announced seven conditions for starting any negotiations with the US government, ” Rezaei said in a post on X on Saturday, adding that Washington would have to accept Iran’s “rights and conditions” if it wanted to end the war. Rezaei did not publicly disclose all seven conditions. However, in an interview with Al Jazeera, he identified three demands for ending the conflict: an end to the war on all fronts, the release of frozen Iranian funds and an end to the US naval blockade of Iranian ports. “We remain in contact with the mediator Qatar, which has conveyed our conditions to Washington with the aim of ending the war. We are awaiting President Trump’s response, ” Rezaei told Al Jazeera in Tehran. Qatar and Pakistan have been seeking to revive negotiations between Tehran and Washington following the expiry of an Islamabad-brokered memorandum of understanding in August. The MoU, signed in June after Pakistan-hosted talks, was intended to halt the fighting and pave the way for a broader agreement, but both sides later accused each other of violations. Pakistan has continued its mediation efforts, with Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi due to visit Tehran on Sunday, according to reports. Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei said the visit would focus on bilateral relations and previous agreements between the two countries, while acknowledging Islamabad’s continuing diplomatic efforts. Rezaei said Iran remained prepared for another round of fighting if diplomacy failed, saying the possibility of a new US strike was “very much on the cards” based on Tehran’s military assessments. He said Iran had changed its military strategy following the previous rounds of conflict and was now focusing particularly on US naval assets from the Gulf through the Gulf of Oman and the Arabian Sea. Rezaei also claimed that Iran had recently test-fired a multi-warhead anti-ship missile near a US vessel or aircraft carrier. The claims could not be independently verified. He warned that any renewed Iranian response could target US military bases in the region as well as American commercial interests and companies operating there. At the same time, Rezaei said Tehran was pursuing a strategy aimed at bringing the war to an end as soon as possible. On the Strait of Hormuz, Rezaei said Iran and Oman had come “a short step” away from announcing an agreement before the plan was shelved. He said the proposed agreement remained ready but could require regional endorsement before being made public. Rezaei also rejected US accusations that Iran had violated the previous MoU by attacking an oil tanker in the strait, saying Tehran’s actions came after US strikes on Bandar Abbas and an Iranian surveillance platform. On Iran’s nuclear programme, Rezaei said Tehran had not decided to withdraw from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty despite what he described as grounds to do so following US and Israeli attacks. He said Iran’s nuclear doctrine remained unchanged and that Tehran continued to observe a religious decree prohibiting the development of nuclear weapons. However, he warned that further sanctions or international pressure over Iran’s nuclear programme could affect its future position. Rezaei also rejected speculation that Iran could seek to close the Bab El Mandeb Strait to put pressure on global energy markets, saying the waterway was a Yemeni matter linked to the actions of the Houthi movement.

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