Iran Says Mediators Stepping in After Days of US Clashes

Iran said mediators have been in touch with proposals on how to ease hostilities with the U.S. after several days of clashes, though tensions remain high after a threat by the Tehran-backed Houthi group to blockade Saudi Arabia.

Esmail Baghaei, the Islamic Republic’s foreign ministry spokesman, said “ideas from some mediators have been conveyed” to Tehran, without giving further details. Tehran said its interior minister, Eskandar Momeni, is traveling to Pakistan on Monday.

Qatar and Pakistan, the main intermediaries in the conflict, see a return to U.S.- Iran positions of pre- July 9 as a first step, according to semi-official Iranian Students’ News Agency. Fighting over control of the Strait of Hormuz began that day, effectively unraveling an interim peace deal signed last month.

There’s as yet no indication of a return to formal talks. One proposal is for a 10-day ceasefire to find ways to revive that memorandum of understanding, Reuters reported, citing an unidentified senior Iranian official.

Oil swung between gains and losses on Monday on the prospects for further escalation and detente in the conflict. Global benchmark Brent rose briefly following the Houthis’ statement before it dropped again and was trading 0.4% lower at $87.70 a barrel as of 2:35 p.m. in London.

Yahya Saree, a spokesman for the Iran-backed Houthis in Yemen, said on Monday that they would impose a maritime blockade on Saudi Arabia in retaliation for what they say is the kingdom’s siege on the Yemeni capital, Sana’a.

That announcement adds to a slew of risks facing global oil supplies, as it puts at risk the flow of millions of barrels that the kingdom exports via the Red Sea.

U.S. gasoline prices have climbed back over the $4-a-gallon mark, potentially hurting President Donald Trump and his Republican party ahead of midterm elections in November.

The U.S. earlier conducted a ninth straight day of airstrikes on Iran, trying to force the Islamic Republic to stop shipping attacks and reopen the Strait of Hormuz. Tehran is refusing to relent, insisting it has a right to manage traffic through the critical waterway.

The American military bombed military targets and communications networks in a three-hour operation ending around 5:30 a.m. Iranian time on Monday. Iran continued to attack U.S. bases in the likes of Kuwait, Jordan, Bahrain and Iraq.

The tit-for-tat attacks are getting deadlier. The U.S. military announced the death of a service member in northern Iraq on Saturday during a “controlled detonation” of a downed Iranian drone. That was a day after two others were killed in an Iranian attack on Jordan, with another service member still missing from the same strike.

Iran says U.S. strikes have killed more than 50 people and wounded over 500 since the most recent flare-up between the two sides began just under two weeks ago.

A breakthrough is unlikely to happen until the U.S. and Iran can reach an agreement over shipping in the Hormuz strait, through which one fifth of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas supplies typically flowed before the conflict began.

Shipping volumes have slumped and the number of tankers and other vessels going through Hormuz is now roughly the same level as during the height of the conflict in March and early April.

Trump warned Iran last week he’d escalate airstrikes and widen the scope of targets until it backed down. Late on Sunday, speaking of the latest American fatalities, he said: “Those great patriots were out there fighting so that Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon.”

The latest U.S. attacks were “in honor” of the personnel killed, Trump told reporters.

Abbas Araghchi, Iran’s foreign minister, said his country wouldn’t abandon diplomacy but also won’t be forced back to the negotiating table while under military attack by the U.S.

“Iran’s actions in the Strait of Hormuz and Persian Gulf had global consequences and we became a global player,” he said in an interview published on his Telegram channel, underscoring how Tehran sees control of the strait as a source of leverage over the U.S. and as vital to its security. “This is no small thing. The region realized that without Iranian security it cannot have complete security.”

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Iran continues to send signals it wants to negotiate. He also reiterated the American view that the Iranian government is split between members that want a peace agreement and hardliners who want to fight more.

Kuwait continues to experience some of the worst attacks from Iran. Over the weekend, Kuwait’s main state energy company said an unspecified site sustained “significant material losses,” causing its evacuation and a number of injuries, while two power and desalination plants have been hit in recent days.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is due to convene defense chiefs on Monday evening, a member of his security Cabinet, Eli Cohen, said in a radio interview about the Iran tensions.

“If Iran makes the mistake of attacking the State of Israel, we’ll respond with a might surpassing that of the last campaign,” Cohen told Army Radio on Monday.

The U.S. is sending more warplanes to the Middle East, the New York Times reported, citing anonymous U.S. officials. The planes include F-35 and F-16 fighter jets, as well as aerial-refueling aircraft.

“The Americans keep bringing new military equipment into the region while claiming they want to stop the war,” Iran’s Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, who has participated in negotiations in the past, posted on X. “We have become experts at recognizing these American tactics and have prepared accordingly.”

—With assistance from Golnar Motevalli, Omar Tamo, Dan Williams and Dana Khraiche.

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