Following high-level mediation efforts in Islamabad over the weekend, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi held face-to-face talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin in St Petersburg on Monday.
The diplomatic surge comes as US President Donald Trump convened his senior national security team to evaluate a fresh Iranian peace proposal, delivered via Pakistan, aimed at ending the months-long Middle East crisis and reopening the Strait of Hormuz.
The White House confirmed the proposal called for reopening the narrow Persian Gulf shipping lane in return for lifting the US blockade of Iranian ports and ending the war, with nuclear talks deferred to a later stage, but didn’t say how the “America first” president viewed the proposition.
“I wouldn’t say they’re considering it. I would just say that there was a discussion this morning that I don’t want to get ahead of, and you’ll hear directly from the president, I’m sure, on this topic very soon,” spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said.
However, Leavitt asserted that Trump’s “red lines” with respect to Iran have been made “very, very clear, not just to the American public, but also to them as well”.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio criticised Iran’s offer in an interview with Trump-friendly Fox News.