Iranian officials signaled on Sunday that peace negotiations with the U.S. are continuing, even as Washington prepares for a potential escalation in the war later this year and Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen threaten global energy markets.
The developments come as the U.S. pulled its bombers from the RAF Fairford base in Britain just a week after an alleged terror plot threatened the military base. The bombers, which were used by the U.S. during its war with Iran, have been redeployed to their home bases in the U.S., according to reports.
Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Gharibabadi said in a statement that Iran is reviewing the U.S. response to the seven-day peace proposal delivered to Washington via mediators late last month.
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The proposal would have established a framework agreement leading to the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz and a comprehensive ceasefire after one week.
Mr. Gharibabadi’s comments follow President Trump’s public rejection of the agreement last week. Mr. Trump argued that the deal did not go far enough and that Iran had lost significant leverage over the strait in the past month.
Separately on Sunday, several Iranian members of parliament said talks with the U.S. continue through mediators, but that Washington remains heavily focused on getting Iran to agree to denuclearization while Iran’s proposals center on the future control and security of the Strait of Hormuz.
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Mr. Trump launched the war against Iran in late February with the explicit goal of removing Iran’s ability to manufacture nuclear weapons.
U.S. negotiators under Mr. Trump have attempted to elicit concessions from Iran on the nuclear issue, including a promise to halt all enrichment forever, but Iranian officials have repeatedly refused, citing national sovereignty.
Iran has long insisted that it does not seek nuclear weapons, though its stockpiles of highly enriched uranium concern analysts who say Tehran is only a few steps away from weapons-grade levels.
Esmaeil Baghaei, spokesperson for Iran’s Foreign Ministry, told a press conference Sunday that Tehran is considering a Russian proposal to take custody of its stockpiles of highly enriched uranium. He said the final decision will rest on national security interests.
It remains to be seen whether the U.S. would accept Russia taking control of the uranium stockpiles.
Energy Secretary Chris Wright confirmed that the U.S. is keeping diplomatic tracks with Iran open, though he insisted that Mr. Trump reserves the right to resume military pressure on Tehran if he sees fit.
“We’re looking at every avenue to achieve that goal economically, to be prepared for what comes militarily,” Mr. Wright said.
Asked whether he was concerned about the effect further military action against Iran would have on the flow of global energy, Mr. Wright said he was aware of the risk but pointed to Mr. Trump’s concerns that Tehran could build nuclear weapons.
The U.S. has signaled it is prepared to increase military pressure on Iran before the year ends.
The USS Theodore Roosevelt aircraft carrier strike group departed San Francisco for the Middle East late last month and is expected to join the USS George H.W. Bush and USS George Washington in the region by the end of November.
Additionally, vessels from the USS Makin Island Amphibious Ready Group deployed to the region last week.
Together with the carrier strike group, the new deployments are expected to bring approximately 9,000 additional troops to the Middle East.
Iran has not missed the signaled escalation. Iranian officials have repeatedly said that Tehran is prepared to launch massive retaliatory attacks if the U.S. restarts kinetic action. They have also indicated that new targets would be hit, perhaps in reference to regional energy infrastructure.
“We hope the United States will choose the path of wisdom and reason, but if it again moves toward military solutions, we are more prepared than before and will do whatever is necessary to defend ourselves,” Abbas Araghchi, Iran’s foreign minister, told ambassadors at the international mission in Tehran on Saturday.
The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations reported yet another strike on a commercial tanker in the Strait of Hormuz on Sunday, the fourth since the start of October. All of the strikes have occurred on the Omani side of the waterway, according to UKMTO.
The attacks, which have seemingly increased in recent weeks, have reportedly slowed traffic in the strait to single-digit vessel movements.
Last month, U.S. officials insisted that the strait was open and that Iran had no control over the waterway.
Reports from late September found that traffic in the strait was approaching pre-war levels, though tallies from independent tracking firms varied and oil prices mostly remained above $100 a barrel.
Further threats to international energy came from Yemen on Sunday, as the Houthis continued to strike at oil infrastructure in Saudi Arabia.
The Houthis said on Sunday that their forces launched several ballistic missiles and drones at oil facilities near Saudi Arabia’s capital, heightening fears that the Yemen war and its consequences could spread beyond its borders.
Houthi military spokesperson Yahya Saree said the strikes successfully damaged sites in Riyadh and the Khurais oil field, which sits just east of the city. Photos and video from the sites show scattered fires at the facilities and large plumes of black smoke.
The Saudi government has not issued a formal response to the allegations. Maj. Gen. Turki al-Maliki, the spokesperson for the Saudi-led coalition forces, said in a statement to state-affiliated media that the Houthis’ account of the attack is “misleading.”
Houthi militants, supplied with weapons and equipment by Iran, have in recent weeks overtaken large swaths of territory in Yemen’s west, including strategic islands in the Bab al-Mandeb Strait. The territorial expansion has shocked international observers and likely given the rebels more options for launching strikes into Saudi Arabia and on ships traveling in the Red Sea.
There are also indications that Iran could use its proxies to target U.S. military infrastructure beyond the Middle East.
Last week, British counterterrorism authorites arrested five men in connection with an alleged terror plot near RAF Fairford. The men, all British nationals, were arrested with three vans after one of the suspects dialed emergency services and residents called the police.
Investigators found no explosives in the vans, and officials have released scant details on what exactly the suspects were allegedly planning to do at the base. All five men were released on bail within 24 hours, though authorities have indicated they are under surveillance.
Another 25-year-old British-Iranian national was arrested later in the week and was also released on bail the next day.
The incident sparked fears that the suspects could have been operating under orders from Iran to target the base. Iranian officials said earlier this year that the base, which was used by the U.S. to launch bombing raids against targets in Iran, was a legitimate target.
U.S. officials declined to provide specifics as to why the bombers, many of which had been stationed at RAF Fairford for months, were redeployed on Sunday.
“While operational security precluded us from confirming the movement of our assets and forces in real time, we can acknowledge now that all U.S. bombers that were deployed to RAF Fairford have redeployed to their home stations in the United States,” a Pentagon spokesperson said in a statement.
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