Tuesday, October 27

Qatar says its delegation visited Iran to help de-escalate US-Iran tensions

Tehran, Oct 27 (IANS) Qatar said Tuesday that a Qatari delegation’s visit to Tehran on Sunday was part of ongoing mediation efforts to ease Iran-US tensions, while calling for a new regional security framework for sovereignty and non-aggression.

Ibrahim bin Sultan Al Hashmi, director of the Media and Communications Department at Qatar’s Foreign Ministry, told a weekly press briefing that proposals continued to be exchanged between the United States and Iran through mediators, urging the crisis to be resolved through dialogue and diplomacy.

He also called for a new regional security framework founded on respect for national sovereignty and mutual non-aggression, a position Qatar had previously outlined at the United Nations, Xinhua News Agency reported.

Iran’s Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei on Tuesday called for safeguarding Iran’s rights and those of the regional “resistance front” by meeting Iran’s conditions to end the war, according to a statement published on his website.

Describing the current state as “neither war nor peace,” Khamenei underscored “securing the conditions stipulated by the country’s officials with the aim of ending the war.

Iran on September 22 conveyed a new plan to the United States through mediators on the sidelines of the 81st session of the UN General Assembly in New York.

Under the plan, Tehran proposed ending the war and reopening the Strait of Hormuz within seven days, provided that the United States accepted its conditions.

Meanwhile, Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian and Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani met Tuesday on the sidelines of the 8th Summit of Heads of State and Government of the Gas Exporting Countries Forum in Moscow and discussed ways to expand bilateral relations and energy cooperation, the Iranian official news agency IRNA reported.

Pezeshkian arrived in Moscow on Monday night. He is scheduled to hold meetings with a number of the participating countries’ leaders on ties and cooperation, according to the website of his office.

–IANS

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