Tehran is speaking in two voices at once, and that is the point.
On September 28, Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi told NBC's 'Meet the Press' that Iran is "fully prepared for the war to be resumed" even if it becomes a “doomsday war” while remaining open to real diplomacy. “It is up to President Trump to choose.”
The timing matters. The comment responds to a 'Wall Street Journal' report that Trump told aides he plans to resume bombing Iran after the November 3 midterms, after publicly rejecting Tehran's seven-day roadmap to reopen the Strait of Hormuz.
Trump, at the PGA Presidents Cup, refused to rule out pre-midterm strikes. "It's possible, but I just don't want to say that," he said, claiming the US would "win very soon" and oil would then fall "way down." He cited inflation near 300% in Iran and threatened diesel export bans.
Read more - https://english.cultcurrent.in/NewsDetail/536/Back-To-Brink
At stake is Hormuz, through which 20% of global oil flows. Iran's proposal, briefed in New York on September 24, links reopening the strait to unfreezing Iranian assets, ending the US military blockade, and resuming oil sales — terms Tehran says were in a June MoU that collapsed.
Araghchi's dual message is textbook coercive diplomacy: show readiness for escalation to raise the cost of rejection, while keeping Qatar-mediated backchannels alive. Axios reports those talks are "positive, constructive." He also told CBS: “We don't care about U.S. midterm elections. We care about our national interests.”
Read more - https://english.cultcurrent.in/NewsDetail/403/US-Iran-Tensions-in-the-Strait-of-Hormuz-Deepen-Energy-Crisis
Between Trump's demand for a non-nuclear Iran and his symbolic renaming of Hormuz as the "Trump Strait," and Iran's demand for economic relief, lies the narrow space for deal — or apocalypse.
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