Mediators push to break US-Iran deadlock

{"text":[[{"start":9.38,"text":"Mediators are making a renewed push to advance a deal between the US and Iran, days after President Donald Trump said he had rejected an Iranian proposal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz and restart talks on ending the war."}],[{"start":24.34,"text":"Negotiators were expected to hand over the latest amended draft of a proposed interim agreement to Iran on Tuesday, after shuttling between US and Iranian officials a day earlier, two officials briefed on the talks said."}],[{"start":36.82,"text":"Under the terms of the deal, which mediators hope will revive talks on a final settlement to end the war, Iran would allow the free flow of traffic through the Strait of Hormuz and the US would lift its blockade on Iranian ports in response."}],[{"start":49.98,"text":"One of the officials said there had been progress but that the parties continued to haggle over the sequencing of the next phases of the agreement."}],[{"start":57.36,"text":"These would include the US reinstating an oil waiver to allow Iran to sell oil, enabling Tehran to access some of its assets frozen overseas, and elements related to Iran’s nuclear programme, including allowing International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors to return to the republic, the officials said."}],[{"start":74.94,"text":"The White House declined to comment."}],[{"start":null,"text":"

"}],[{"start":77.8,"text":"Mediators have for weeks been struggling to break a months-long deadlock between the warring parties amid fears that the impasse risks triggering a further round of escalation in the more than seven-month conflict."}],[{"start":88.72,"text":"Trump said Sunday that he expected more talks with Tehran this week, saying Iran wanted a deal. But the US president added in an interview with Axios that “it is not the deal that I want to make” and that Iran “overplayed their hand”."}],[{"start":102.24,"text":"Iranian foreign minister Abbas Araghchi said last week that Tehran had submitted a proposal to mediators under which Iran would agree to open the strait within seven days and resume talks on a final settlement."}],[{"start":112.92,"text":"In return, it wants the US to agree to lift its blockade, allow access to some of its frozen funds and reinstate the oil waiver."}],[{"start":120.84,"text":"The offer was delivered on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly, where Araghchi held indirect talks with Trump’s envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law."}],[{"start":129.16,"text":"On Monday, Qatari mediators met Araghchi in New York and the US officials in Washington, where they discussed an amended version of the Iranian proposal."}],[{"start":138.52,"text":"Araghchi later told state television he expected to receive the US response on Tuesday."}],[{"start":144.32,"text":"Last week’s talks were the first between the US and Iran since the collapse of a memorandum of understanding the parties signed in June, which was supposed to reopen the strait and lay the framework for talks on ending the war."}],[{"start":157.28,"text":"But it began unravelling in about two weeks, after Iran began attacking vessels transiting the strait along a corridor that traced Oman’s coast, accusing them of using an “unauthorised route”."}],[{"start":169.36,"text":"Both sides accused each other of violating the MoU and engaged in cycles of escalatory strikes."}],[{"start":null,"text":""}],[{"start":175.76,"text":"In recent weeks, Trump has said the strait is open and under US control, as American forces have guided tankers through the waterway, through which about a fifth of the world’s oil and gas passed before the war."}],[{"start":187.48,"text":"However, ships still risk the threat of an Iranian attack and the strait remains closed to other commodity imports and exports, including petrochemicals, refined fuels and feedstock for fertiliser."}],[{"start":200.16,"text":"The Trump administration has said it will not return to the June MoU. It has instead been pushing for a more comprehensive agreement that would include more substantive Iranian commitments on its nuclear programme, according to people familiar with the talks."}],[{"start":214.08,"text":"It has also sought to increase the pressure on Iran’s beleaguered economy by threatening secondary sanctions on entities that trade with the Islamic republic."}],[{"start":222.944,"text":"Andrew L Peek, who previously served as Trump’s deputy assistant secretary of state for Iraq and Iran, said the White House could probably afford to “sit” in the status quo “for a while”."}],[{"start":231.44,"text":"The fact that there was no “deal that we have to defend right now politically” and that “we are not in a ground war with Iran” made for a “relatively politically stable situation”, said Peek, who is now with the Atlantic Council."}],[{"start":247.12,"text":"But Ali Vaez, at Crisis Group, said the talks signalled that both sides were still interested in finding a diplomatic solution amid concerns that Iran could strike out as it comes under mounting economic pressure."}],[{"start":258.8,"text":"But he added that it was “unclear they would get to a point that would be mutually satisfactory”."}],[{"start":262.56,"text":"“There are efforts to square the circle because everybody understands if it doesn’t happen, some sort of escalation by the Iranians is quite likely,” Vaez said. But “they still lack the requisite flexibility to grant the other side the optics of victory. It’s a Sisyphean challenge.”"}],[{"start":281.18,"text":""}]],"url":"https://audio.ftcn.net.cn/album/a_1790741018_7987.mp3"}