Iran has received a message from the United States through mediators as a potential precursor to talks between the two warring countries, a senior Iranian Foreign Ministry official told CBS News on Monday, after President Trump suggested a deal is possible.
The Iranian official said “we received points from the U.S. through mediators and they are being reviewed.”
Earlier Monday, Mr. Trump announced on social media that the U.S. and Iran had “very good and productive conversations regarding a complete and total resolution of our hostilities” in recent days. He later told reporters the two sides had about 15 points of agreement and Iranian officials had expressed that “they want peace,” predicting: “I think there’s a very good chance we’re going to end up in a deal.”
The president also backed off an ultimatum issued over the weekend for Iran to either reopen the Strait of Hormuz — a key oil industry chokepoint — or face strikes on its power plants. He said the U.S. military would hold off on bombing Iran’s energy infrastructure for five days, “subject to the success of the ongoing meetings and discussions.”
Iran’s Foreign Ministry initially denied that talks were taking place. But Mr. Trump’s comments buoyed hopes that the 23-day-long conflict could be nearing a resolution. The international oil price benchmark, Brent Crude, plunged 10% on the news Monday, and the S&P 500 rallied 1.15%.
Iran and the U.S. do not have formal diplomatic relations and have historically communicated with each other indirectly, with other countries in the region serving as mediators. Pakistan has sought to position itself as a potential mediator, CBS News reported earlier Monday. Oman has also frequently served as a mediator between the two countries, most recently brokering several rounds of nuclear talks earlier this year.
Mr. Trump told reporters on Monday that the U.S. was communicating with a “top person” in Iran, but not the new supreme leader, Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei. He declined to name the person “because I don’t want him to be killed.”
The contours of any potential deal are not clear. The president told reporters Monday that Iran had “agreed they will not have a nuclear weapon,” which was one of the war aims that he laid out at the start of the conflict, along with degrading Iran’s conventional military.
Iran has long denied any interest in building a nuclear weapon. But the two sides were unable to reach a deal over Iran’s nuclear program earlier this year, with Mr. Trump pushing for Iran to give up all uranium enrichment — a demand that Iran has long rejected.
It’s also unclear whether Israel would be part of any possible U.S.-Iran deal. The U.S. and Israel began striking Iran jointly in late February, but the two allies have occasionally disagreed on how extensively to target the country, with Mr. Trump saying last week that he disapproved of Israeli strikes on a major Iranian natural gas field.
CBS News has reached out to the White House for comment.
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: cbsnews.com
