Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said on Saturday that a letter from U.S. Vice President JD Vance seeking to restart negotiations is a welcome opening, even as he set out Tehran's conditions for any talks and warned that Iran does not rule out another outbreak of war.
In an interview with Al Jazeera, Araghchi said, "The American side's attempt to open the door to dialogue and understanding more broadly is a positive step." He added a caution: "If Washington's goal in sending this letter is to stir up discord, it would be yet another mistake to add to its previous ones."
The Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday that Vance sent the letter to Iranian security chief Mohsen Rezaei on the instructions of President Donald Trump, seeking to restart negotiations and prevent further U.S. military strikes. Araghchi said Tehran is studying the message and sees no need to meet American officials at this stage, while an American delegation is expected to join Iranian officials for talks in Doha, with Qatar and Pakistan mediating.
On the Strait of Hormuz — the waterway at the heart of the standoff — Araghchi said Qatar has proposed cutting the implementation period of Iran's reopening plan from five days to two. "The Qatari side proposed shortening the implementation period of the Iranian proposal to five days. We have reached a proposal at this stage that reduces the implementation period to two days," he said.
He also laid out the conditions Tehran wants met: "Our conditions include lifting the sanctions imposed following the Islamabad memorandum and reducing US forces in the region. We demand the restoration of oil waivers and the release of all our frozen funds, including those held in Qatar. Reopening the Strait of Hormuz in accordance with our conditions paves the way for the resumption of negotiations with Washington regarding outstanding issues."
Reports from the mediation track say the two sides have reached an understanding on preliminary measures covering Iran's nuclear programme, navigation through the Strait of Hormuz and financial incentives for Tehran, with China and Russia expected to serve as guarantors of any agreement.
Araghchi kept the military warning alongside the diplomacy. "We do not rule out any possibility regarding the outbreak of war, and we are prepared for all scenarios. We have upgraded our weaponry, addressed our vulnerabilities, and tested new arms; our forces are at the highest level of readiness," he said. In his own words earlier this week, he wrote that while Iran's armed forces are fully prepared to defend the homeland, "Iran continues to give diplomacy a chance to succeed."
For ordinary people, what is at stake in these talks is the price of fuel and goods: the Strait of Hormuz carries a large share of the world's oil and gas, and every step toward reopening it lowers the risk of another spike in energy prices at the pump and in the shops, while every step back toward war pushes those costs up.
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