Tehran has sent a senior delegation to Qatar for indirect talks on a possible peace deal with Washington amid rising tensions following a U.S. air strike on an Iranian island in the Strait of Hormuz.
The high-profile team, led by Parliament Speaker and chief negotiator Mohammad-Bagher Ghalibaf, arrived in Doha on Monday in a surprise visit.
The delegation includes Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and Central Bank Governor Abdolnaser Hemmati.
In the absence of official details about the visit’s agenda, the composition of the delegation suggested that security, diplomatic and economic issues would be discussed, including the release of Iran’s frozen assets, reportedly estimated at between $6 billion and $12 billion.
Lifting the U.S. blockade on Iran’s southern ports and the Strait of Hormuz, which connects the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman, is also expected to top the agenda as a major sticking point in ongoing peace negotiations.
Last Saturday, a senior Qatari delegation visited Tehran while Pakistan’s Army Chief, Field Marshal Asim Munir, was in the Iranian capital to negotiate the terms of an interim peace agreement between Iran and the U.S.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei said Iran welcomed Qatar’s renewed mediation efforts to broker a peace deal between Tehran and Washington, adding that Pakistan remained the main channel for mediated talks.
Meanwhile, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said in a statement on Tuesday that it had shot down an MQ-9 Reaper drone and intercepted an RQ-4 Global Hawk drone, as well as an F-35 fighter jet.
According to local media quoting official sources, a U.S. air strike on Iran’s Larak Island, north of the strategic Strait of Hormuz waterway, late on Monday left at least three people dead.
The IRGC also warned against violations of the ceasefire by the U.S. Army, according to DefaPress, a website covering military news.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs condemned what it described as ceasefire violations by the United States over the past 48 hours, stressing: “Iran will not leave any evil act unanswered and will not hesitate in defending the Iranian nation.”
“These aggressive acts committed simultaneously with the ongoing diplomatic process mediated by Pakistan, once again exposed the U.S. ruling body’s callousness and lack of commitment to the Iranian nation, the people of the region, and the international community,” a ministry statement said.
“It showed that the principled stance of the Iranian nation, in all three arenas of the (military) field, the street, and diplomacy which is based on deep suspicion of the U.S. regime, is founded on logic and a deep understanding of its nature and vindictive and criminal actions against the Iranian people,” state-run IRNA news agency reported, quoting the statement.
In a separate development, Secretary of the Supreme National Security Council (SNSC) Mohammad-Bagher Zolghadr reiterated that Iran would not surrender to Israel and the U.S., saying national unity would disappoint its enemies.
“There will be no retreat. More than ever, the country needs unity and cohesion so that the Americans and Zionists will be disappointed in this regard too,” he said in a statement.
It was the top security official’s first public statement since President Masoud Pezeshkian appointed him as Iran’s security chief in March after former SNSC secretary Ali Larijani was killed in Israel-U.S. air raids.
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The U.S. military said it completed a fresh wave of strikes on Iran late on Thursday, marking the 13th consecutive night of American attacks. The latest operation lasted more than two hours, according to U.S. Central Command.
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