Talks under way to prevent renewed outbreak of Iran war

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Qatari mediators are presenting a new Iranian peace plan to the US, which Washington says it is considering. The mood music from the US government is mixed, with President Trump saying on Friday it had “made a lot of progress with Iran” and that new strikes were “unlikely,” but Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Sunday that no breakthrough was close and Iranian demands were “outrageous and ridiculous.”

Iran is urging Washington to lift its naval blockade, release seized assets and drop sanctions in return for a reopened Strait of Hormuz, albeit with a new exclusive route through controlled by Iran and Oman. Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Iran was ready to “rain down hell” should the war resume, while the military said it was ready to implement new doctrines from Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei based around “urgency, effectiveness, and a lack of geographical limitations” — indicating Iran might aspire to strike assets used by the US military well beyond the region, which could include military bases in Britain which have been used to prosecute the illegal war.

The governments of Turkey and Iraq were also urging the US not to resume all-out war today.

Mr Rubio was in Paris today for talks with the G7 group of Western powers, with European states keen for a resolution of the Iran war — which has forced up oil and gas prices by closing the Strait of Hormuz — but unenthusiastic about US-brokered talks between Russia and Ukraine, which European Nato members view as too conciliatory towards Russia.

The Trump administration has suggested a new European security architecture could be agreed that encompasses Russia, a proposal reflecting Moscow’s demands that its security from an expanding Nato be included in any long-term peace. But German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul said on his way to Paris that this was unacceptable: “Europe doesn’t need a new security architecture, as Russia would have us believe, but simply the restoration of the existing security architecture.”