Iran says Trump must choose between war or diplomacy as talks expected to resume this week

The U.S. and Iran are expected to have separate talks with mediators on Monday or Tuesday, an official with knowledge of the negotiations told the Reuters news agency.

With Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi in the U.S., as well as Qatari mediators, the talks are set to focus on an updated version of the seven-day proposal Iran gave to U.S. counterparts last week during the United Nations General Assembly, the official told Reuters.

President Trump said Sunday that he expected talks with Iran to resume in the coming days, a day after he rejected a new proposal put forward by Tehran last week for a seven-day ceasefire and phased reopening of the Strait of Hormuz.

“They want to make a deal, but it is not the deal that I want to make,” Mr. Trump told Axios. “It is what we would have maybe agreed to a year ago.”

Saudi Arabia has resumed exporting oil using its crucial East-West Crude Oil Pipeline after drone strikes earlier this month forced it shut, according to a source with direct knowledge of the matter quoted by Bloomberg.

Saudi Arabia had been using the pipeline to transport oil from its eastern production hubs to its Red Sea ports for export — a vital alternative route as shipping through the Strait of Hormuz has remained severely disrupted by the U.S.-Iran war.

The pipeline was shut down earlier this month after a series of drone attacks that Saudi authorities blamed on Iran-backed militias in Iraq.

The state-run energy giant Saudi Aramco, which operates the kingdom’s oil infrastructure, tested the pipeline last week and has now resumed overseas shipments via the Red Sea route, a source familiar with the operation told Bloomberg.

Iran’s Houthi allies in Yemen have vowed to impose a blockade of Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea ports and against Saudi ships, and they have targeted several vessels in the region.

Iran has lodged a complaint with the United Nations over U.S. sanctions against its aviation sector, which have forced the cancellation of many flights across the region, state media reported Monday.

The U.S. imposed restrictions this month on the entire Iranian aviation industry and vowed to take a hard line against any companies or countries that continue to assist it.

As the sanctions took effect last Wednesday, some major airlines were forced to cancel international flights as several nations in the region implemented bans.

“To defend the legitimate rights of the aviation industry and counter illegal restrictions imposed by America, Iran has drafted and submitted a formal protest to the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO),” said civil aviation chief Abouzar Shiroudi, according to Iran’s official IRNA news agency.

CBS/AFP

Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei has been quoted as predicting that U.S. military forces will soon be driven out of the Arabian Sea.

In a message to mark Iran’s Sacred Defense Week, the ayatollah — who has not been seen or heard from directly since the war began — said U.S. forces were unable to advance beyond the Arabian Sea, which leads to the Strait of Hormuz, “because of the painful blows they have received.”

He added that soon, U.S. troops would be driven from the Arabian Sea, too.

U.S. forces have operated across the region since the war began, including to escort commercial vessels through the Strait of Hormuz in defiance of Iran’s bid to control traffic through the vital waterway.

The wide-ranging message attributed by Iranian state media to Khamenei included praise for Iran’s military forces, as well as for the former leader of the Iran-backed Hezbollah group in Lebanon.

Khamenei was named Iran’s new supreme leader soon after his father and predecessor, Ali Khamenei, was killed in the first round of U.S.-Israeli strikes, which sparked the war on Feb. 28. 

The younger Khamenei has not been seen, even in video, since he was named the supreme leader, and senior U.S. officials have said he was likely seriously wounded in the same strike that killed his father.

The Iranian rial has fallen to a new historic low against the U.S. dollar, with the free-market selling rate surpassing 2.4 million rials per dollar on Monday.

Data from Pashizi, which tracks Iran’s free-market exchange rates, put the dollar at around 2.4 million rials as Iran faces high inflation, sweeping sanctions and growing disruption to foreign trade.

Annual inflation has reached 61.4% in August, while food prices are reported to have risen 128% from a year earlier, according to data from Iran’s Statistical Center.

Iranian state media said Monday that Iran’s delegation at the U.N. General Assembly in New York had no plans to hold direct talks with the U.S., after President Trump said he expected more negotiations to take place this week.

“Iran’s delegation in New York has no plans for negotiations with the United States,” said the official IRNA news agency, citing an unnamed source close to the group.

Mr. Trump told Axios on Sunday he expected negotiations to continue this week, and added that the Iranian leaders were interested in reaching an agreement because they are “losing badly.” 

“Iran’s views and positions were conveyed clearly and explicitly to the U.S. side … via a Qatari mediator,” IRNA said, adding that the Iranian delegation would return to Tehran on Tuesday.

Since the outbreak of the war in February, negotiations between Tehran and Washington have occurred largely through mediators.

CBS/AFP

U.K. police said five men arrested in the early hours of Sunday near an air base used by the United States during its war against Iran were being held on suspicion of preparing a terrorist act that appeared to involve three trucks.

RAF Fairford, a U.K. Royal Air Force base about 85 miles west of London in rural Gloucestershire, has been used by American bombers to conduct strikes against Iranian missile sites. The British government, under an agreement made under former Prime Minister Keir Starmer, granted the U.S. permission to use Farford and other key U.K. bases provided it was only for strikes defined as defensive in nature.

Authorities are investigating a link between the arrests in Fairford and Iran as one possibility. Iranian authorities have declared all bases used to attack Iranian territory as legitimate targets.

President Trump praised those who were involved in making the arrests.

“It was an amazing job. We had them under investigation. They were looking to do big damage to our fort. And working with the British worked out great,” he told reporters in Chicago on Sunday. “We had them under view for a long time and we got them.”

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Sunday that Tehran was ready for either diplomacy or a return to fighting in the war sparked seven months ago by joint U.S.-Israeli strikes on Iran. He said it is now up to President Trump to choose which direction to go.

“We are fully prepared for the time for the war to be resumed, and I repeat, we stand firm in the face of any new aggression, even if it comes to a doomsday war,” Araghchi told NBC News’ “Meet the Press.”

“At the same time, we stand ready for diplomacy. It is up to President Trump to choose,” he said.

President Trump on Saturday rejected Iran’s proposal to return to a ceasefire agreement that collapsed months ago as part of a seven-day plan that would see it reopen the Strait of Hormuz to commercial shipping. 

Araghchi said Tehran would wait for an official response from mediators.

President Trump said Sunday that he expects talks with Iran to resume in the coming week, a day after he rejected a truce proposal put forward by Tehran.

“They want to make a deal, but it is not the deal that I want to make,” Mr. Trump told Axios in a phone interview on Sunday. “It is what we would have maybe agreed to a year ago.”

Iran said Friday it had submitted a proposal to the U.S. to reopen the Strait of Hormuz over seven days, but Mr. Trump asserted that Iranian leaders wanted the deal because “they are losing so badly.”

“They overplayed their hand,” Mr. Trump told Axios.

The president said resuming strikes on Iran was not off the table, adding: “I am always thinking about it.”

CBS/AFP

Republican Sen. John Kennedy of Louisiana said Iran’s proposed plan to reopen the Strait of Hormuz and restart talks was “not a serious offer.”

“The president’s not Bambi’s baby brother. He turned it down,” Kennedy said Sunday on “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan.” 

“We need to continue doing what we’re doing — the sanctions, the blockade,” said Kennedy.

“Now there’s just one problem: The strait is at least partially closed, and it’s affected the price of oil. And oil’s in everything, including gasoline, and it’s painful as hell,” he said, adding: “We’ve got to either figure out a way to settle this thing, to get the strait open, or to escalate.” 

Kennedy said he would not support sending U.S. ground troops into Iran, however.