AFP, TEHRAN
Tehran accused the US of “excessive demands,” Iranian media said yesterday, as US media reports raised the prospect that Washington was mulling new strikes and leaders of the Islamic republic considered the latest peace proposal.Pakistani army chief Asim Munir arrived in Tehran on Friday to bolster mediation, while US President Donald Trump abruptly changed his plans to skip his son’s wedding to stay in Washington due to “circumstances pertaining to government,” fueling speculation that the situation had entered a sensitive stage.Trump has described the stop-start negotiations this week as teetering on the “borderline” between renewed attacks and a deal to end the war, which began with US-Israeli strikes on Iran on Feb. 28 and led to competing blockades around the strategic Strait of Hormuz that have roiled the global economy.
Iranian Minister of Foreign Affairs Abbas Araghchi, right, meets with Pakistan’s Chief of Army Staff Field Marshal Asim Munir, in Tehran yesterday.
Weeks of negotiations since an April 8 ceasefire — including historic face-to-face talks hosted by Islamabad — have still not produced a permanent resolution or restored full access to the strait, choking vast quantities of global oil supply.Iranian Minister of Foreign Affairs Abbas Araghchi said in a call with UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres that Tehran was engaged in the diplomatic process despite “repeated betrayals of diplomacy and military aggression against Iran, along with contradictory positions and repeated excessive demands” by the US, the Iranian foreign ministry said.
