Iranian officials said Wednesday they had received an official response from the United States to Tehran’s latest proposal to end the the seven month warwhich american president Donald Trump had publicly rejected a few days earlier.
Officials did not say what the response contained or whether it was a rejection.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi presented the US response to the president Massoud Pezeshkian At a Cabinet meeting, government spokesperson Fatemeh Mohajerani told state news agency IRNA.
“We will do everything possible to bring this agreement to fruition and will firmly defend the rights of the Iranian people,” Pezeshkian said. “The agreement must now be based on a win-win strategy.”
The Cabinet meeting followed Araghchi’s return to Iran after his trip to New York last week. United Nations General Assemblywhere officials held indirect talks with US officials and also met with Qatari and Pakistani mediators on the sidelines of the annual gathering of world leaders.
Araghchi and his delegation received the order from Secretary of State Marco Rubio leave New York earlier than expected, according to two U.S. officials familiar with the decision who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss an internal administration process. They left New York very early on Tuesday.
Araghchi briefed the Cabinet on his trip to New York and the meetings he held there, including the conditions imposed by Iran for the reopening of the Strait of Hormuzwhich, according to Mohajerani, was conveyed through mediators.
Araghchi said last week that he launched the proposal reopen the strait in a week if the United States agrees to lift the blockade of Iranian ports, release frozen Iranian assets and lift sanctions on Iranian oil sales, among other conditions.
Trump quickly rejected the proposalsaying Iran wanted to make a deal because it was “losing so much” but its offer “wouldn’t be acceptable.” Despite Trump’s public rebuff, mediators continued to work with Iran and the United States to try to negotiate a deal to end the fighting and open the strait, according to officials who were not authorized to comment publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.
Meanwhile, the U.S. Treasury Department on Tuesday unveiled new sanctions targeting people and companies around the world that it accuses of facilitating or facilitating Iran’s military supply chain.
This latest action is part of the Trump administration’s “Operation Economic Pariah” campaign aimed at cutting off “critical financial lifelines” for the already heavily sanctioned Iranian government.
Ten individuals and entities based in Iran, Hong Kong and Pakistan now face sanctions after being accused of supplying weapons and weapons components to Iran’s Defense Ministry as it wages its seven-month war against the United States.
Iran’s economy continues to collapse
The Iranian economy, subject to strong tensions before the start of the war, has been in free fall since the start of the conflict at the end of February.
The country the currency fell to a record low Tuesday, with traders in Tehran exchanging more than 2.5 million rials for one US dollar, a stark reflection of how the war in the Middle East has gradually intensified. eroded the Iranian economy.
The latest decline came just 27 days after the rial hit its previous record low of 2.2 million per dollar on September 2. The currency has repeatedly reached new lows since the war began in February.
During an exchange with reporters in the Oval Office on Wednesday, Trump threatened to “blow them up” if the United States and Iran did not reach an agreement soon.
“This is going to end very soon, one way or another,” Trump said.
At the start of the conflict, he predicted that the war would last only a few weeks. Most recently, Trump said he expected this to end only after the November 3 midterm elections in the United States.
Iranians face soaring drug prices due to US blockade and sanctions
Drug prices are soaring In Iran and some treatments have become difficult to find, leaving patients and their families scrambling to American blockade and reinforced sanctions squeeze the country’s pharmaceutical industry.
The price of some medicines has more than tripled, further straining Iranian finances, seven months after the start of the country’s war with the United States and Israel. Prices of food and other goods soared even as unemployment rose and the currency, which reached a record level this weeklost half its value.
The war became a test of economic endurance. Iran has attempted to drive up global energy prices by attacking the region’s oil transportation routes; the United States, in turn, seeks to destroy Iran’s economy by blocking its ports since June and imposing increasingly severe sanctions.
Iran executes 2 men accused of violence during January protests
Also on Wednesday, two men were executed in Iran for their role in violence during nationwide anti-government protests in January, state news agency IRNA reported.
Citing the country’s justice system, IRNA said the men took part in unrest in the northeastern city of Mashhad that left four security forces dead earlier this year. Their death sentences were upheld by Iran’s Supreme Court before being executed Wednesday morning.
The unrest began on December 28 amid anger over Iran’s collapsing currency and deteriorating economy and quickly spread across the country, with protesters increasingly calling for the overthrow of the Islamic Republic. Iranian authorities responded with a deadly crackdown.
Rights groups say thousands have been killed and tens of thousands arrested, while Iranian authorities have reported a significantly lower death toll.
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AP writers Michelle L. Price and Matthew Lee in Washington contributed reporting.
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