Trump Expects Talks to Resume: 'They Overplayed Their Hand'
A day after rejecting Iran’s seven-day plan to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, the president said he expects negotiations back under way within the week. “They want to make a deal, but it is not the deal that I want to make,” he said. “It is what we would have maybe agreed to a year ago.” And: “They overplayed their hand.” Indirect contacts through Qatari mediators could begin as early as today.
Tehran has not moved, and says it has still had nothing official. “Our conditions are clear; any progress toward the opening of the Strait of Hormuz is contingent upon the fulfillment of these conditions, and we will not back down from them,” Abbas Araghchi wrote on Telegram, adding that intermediaries have yet to relay a formal answer and that “only a negotiated solution can break this deadlock”. The conditions, as the foreign ministry has set them out, are a halt to what Iran calls American acts of aggression, an end to the naval blockade and economic warfare, and the release of frozen assets. On the water the position hardened rather than softened: the Revolutionary Guards said on Sunday they had captured an American Remus 600 underwater drone and declared the strait closed to any unauthorised traffic. The Wall Street Journal has reported the president privately thinks renewed bombing likely once the midterms are past. Watch whether Qatar produces a text both sides will read.