Paris Soir - Trump expects new Iran talks despite rejecting deal offer

Iranian officials brought with them to the UN General Assembly in New York a plan for a seven-day truce followed by the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz shipping channel.

Trump dismissed the plan and has mused on resuming full-scale air strikes on Iranian targets, but he told the news platform Axios that he expects negotiations to resume.

"They want to make a deal, but it is not the deal that I want to make," Trump told Axios. "It is what we would have maybe agreed to a year ago."

"They overplayed their hand," Trump said, in the interview published Sunday.

Citing sources familiar with the matter, Axios reported that indirect talks between Washington and Tehran could take place as early as Monday.

On Sunday, Iran was still standing by its conditions for reopening the Strait of Hormuz, leaving the Gulf front of the Middle East war locked in a stalemate, while fighting rages in Yemen.

- 'We will not back down' -

Hormuz is a key chokepoint for the world's energy supplies and is now central to the conflict between Washington and Tehran, which was started nearly seven months ago when the US and Israel launched a wave of strikes against Iran.

Iran's plan called for a cessation of all hostilities in the Middle East, including in Lebanon, according to Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, and a return to the conditions in an earlier ceasefire deal that fell apart.

That agreement, which collapsed during fighting over Hormuz, called for the release of frozen Iranian assets, the lifting of sanctions on Iranian oil and an end to the US naval blockade.

"Our conditions are clear, and any move toward reopening the Strait of Hormuz is contingent upon these conditions being fulfilled. We will not back down from them," Araghchi said on Sunday, state broadcaster IRIB reported.

"We have never closed the door to diplomacy or negotiations, but at the same time, we have never backed down from our rights."

Washington's ambassador to the UN, Mike Waltz, accused Tehran of demanding too much in exchange for a return to the negotiating table.

"This was, I think, a pretty cynical attempt to put something on the table that they knew was unacceptable. To ask for the release of the blockade, the sanctions, international sanctions and access to billions in assets, just to talk," he told NBC News in an interview broadcast Sunday.

"I think it's kind of common sense that the president doesn't have a lot of confidence this time after we just tried a few months ago."

Iran's Revolutionary Guards meanwhile said that they seized an American submersible drone on Sunday in the Strait of Hormuz.

It said the underwater vehicle was being used "for espionage purposes", adding that it was "now in the hands of the force's specialists for data recovery".

- 'Tool for pressure' -

Washington and Tehran signed a memorandum of understanding in June aimed at ending the war, reopening the strait and launching talks on Iran's nuclear programme.

But the deal broke down shortly afterwards when Iran fired on commercial ships in Hormuz that it accused of deviating from its approved route through the waterway.

Iran requires ships to obtain authorization before passage, citing security and sovereignty reasons.

Ships that refuse to comply are regularly targeted, while the United States sporadically bombs Iranian coastal areas in retaliation.

Araghchi said at the UN that Iran has conveyed to the United States, through Qatar, a concrete seven-day plan, adding: "The choice now rests with the United States."

Hossein Mohebi, a spokesman for Iran's Revolutionary Guards, was quoted by Tasnim news agency as saying: "We will not cease punishing the US until Iran's seven conditions are met."

Mohebi had told AFP in an exclusive interview on Tuesday that ending hostilities in Yemen was also among Tehran's demands.

T.Girard--PS