Iran submits latest proposal for US negotiations, state media say

ISLAMABAD (AP) — Iran has handed over its latest proposal for negotiations with the United States to mediators in Pakistan, Iran’s state-run IRNA news agency reported Friday.

The U.S. and Pakistan did not immediately confirm receiving the new proposal. There was no word on what details are included in the plan submitted late Thursday, according to the report.

A shaky three-week ceasefire between the U.S. and Iran appears to be still holding though both countries have traded accusations of violations.

While the ceasefire has largely halted fighting in Iran, the U.S. and Iran are locked in a standoff over the Strait of Hormuz, through which a fifth of the world’s traded oil and gas passes in peacetime. A U.S. Navy blockade stopping Iran’s tankers from getting out to sea has Iran’s economy reeling. The world economy is also under pressure as Iran maintains its chokehold on the strait.

U.S. President Donald Trump this week floated a new plan to reopen the critical passageway used by America’s Gulf allies to export their oil and gas.

Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi held a flurry of calls on Friday with many of his regional counterparts, including from Turkey, Egypt, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Azerbaijan, to brief them on his country’s latest initiatives to end the war, according to his social media.

European Union foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas also spoke over phone Friday with Araghchi. They discussed ongoing diplomatic efforts to reopen the Strait of Hormuz and long-term security arrangements, Kallas’ office said in a statement. Kallas also has been in contact with the EU’s Gulf partners.

The Trump administration declined to say whether it had received a new proposal from Iran.

“We do not detail private diplomatic conversations,” White House spokesperson Anna Kelly said in a statement. “President Trump has been clear that Iran can never possess a nuclear weapon, and negotiations continue to ensure the short- and long-term national security of the United States.”

Pakistan on Friday also would not confirm or deny that Tehran had sent proposals to Islamabad, as officials said efforts were continuing to ease tensions between Iran and the U.S. Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif told a Cabinet meeting on Wednesday that a response from Iran was still awaited.

Earlier this week, Trump told Axios that he had rejected Iran’s proposal to reopen the strait in exchange for the U.S. Navy lifting its blockade of Iranian ports.

The Iranian proposal would have pushed negotiations on the country’s nuclear program to a later date, two regional officials said earlier this week. The officials with knowledge of the proposal spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss closed-door negotiations between Iranian and Pakistani officials.

One of the major reasons Trump has said he went to war was to deny Iran the ability to develop nuclear weapons.

Since the war began on Feb. 28, at least 3,375 people have been killed in Iran, and more than 2,600 people in Lebanon, where new fighting between Israel and the Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah broke out two days after the war started, according to authorities.

Additionally, 24 people have died in Israel and more than 20 in Gulf Arab states. Seventeen Israeli soldiers in Lebanon and 13 U.S. service members throughout the region have been killed.

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Ezzidin reported from Cairo. Associated Press writers Sylvie Corbet in Paris and Collin Binkley in Washington contributed to this report.