Reuters: US and Iranian officials spoke separately with mediators on Monday as part of a renewed effort to end seven months of war, according to officials of both countries.
Any further talks are expected to focus on an amended version of a seven-day proposal that Iran presented last week on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly, an official briefed on the negotiations told Reuters.
The war began in late February with US and Israeli attacks on Iran, killing thousands of people over seven months and shocking global markets as vital waterways for oil remained choked. The US and Iran have twice previously agreed to ceasefires in mediated peace talks, in April and June. Those agreements quickly unraveled.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi, who remained in New York after attending the General Assembly, said Iran expected to receive the US response to its latest ceasefire proposals and its conditions for restoring passage of maritime traffic in the Strait of Hormuz, according to state news agency IRNA.
“If the Americans claim they are seeking an agreement or a peaceful solution, we have presented that solution,” Araqchi said.
US officials separately spoke with mediators on Monday, US President Donald Trump told reporters at the White House, without giving further details.The Iranian embassy in London said it “categorically rejects and strongly condemns” what it called “unfounded and malicious speculations” linking Iran to the incident, adding that these would “serve no purpose other than to fuel Iranophobia propaganda in the UK”.
The embassy said Iran “reserves the right to take appropriate legal measures, as necessary, to safeguard the rights and interests of the country and its people in response to misleading and damaging media narratives”.
The RAF base has been used as a forward operating location by the US Air Force (USAF) for decades. In recent months, US bombers have taken off from the base for the Middle East, after the UK approved a US request to use it for defensive strikes on Iran.
In July, Iran said “any base used for aggression against Iranian territory constitutes a legitimate target for our forces”. Speaking at the Oval Office on Monday, US President Donald Trump said he wouldn’t have let the five men arrested out on bail, and that he was “surprised” they had been released.
“We know everything about them, we would not have released them,” he said, adding that the UK had worked with the US “very closely” on this.
A large cordon remains in place near the base, while 85 households who were evacuated on Sunday have now been told by Gloucestershire Police that they can return home.
