Iran offers to speed up ceasefire plan with United States, says it could take effect in two days

TEHRAN: Iran has said it wants to speed up the implementation of the ceasefire plan it has presented to the United States. On Monday, Iranian officials said the seven-point plan presented last month remains the same, but it can now be enforced sooner.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei said the plan has been shortened and can now take effect in two days instead of seven. He said that if Iran’s demands were accepted, security in the Strait of Hormuz could be restored and the negotiation process could begin within a short time. He said it all depended on how the United States wanted to proceed.

The plan includes the early reopening of the Strait of Hormuz and the resumption of talks on Iran’s nuclear programme. Iran has said earlier that its conditions include ending the naval blockade of its ports, lifting sanctions, a guarantee that attacks will stop and, in particular, a complete ceasefire across the region, including Lebanon. Baghaei’s statement gave no indication that Iran had changed its demands or that Washington had accepted the proposal.

Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi told the state news agency IRNA in Ashgabat, Turkmenistan, that if the conditions were accepted, the Strait of Hormuz would open and talks would resume. Otherwise, he said, the present situation would continue and Iran would not bow. He said Tehran was ready for both diplomacy and military confrontation. Qatar and Pakistan are facilitating indirect talks.

According to IRNA, Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei has given the government powers to speed up the talks.

US President Donald Trump has described the talks as “going along well”. However, he has hinted several times that Iran could be attacked after the US midterm elections on 3 November. Speaking to RSBN on Sunday, he said the war would end “very soon”, either with Iran making a deal or the United States ending it. The conflict has been going on for eight months.