DOHA/TEHRAN – Iranian Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi said that Tehran currently has no plans to meet with US officials, while consultations with Qatari and Pakistani mediators continue over Iran's conditions for resolving the crisis, Qatar's Al Jazeera reported Saturday.
In an interview with Al Jazeera, Araghchi dismissed reports of possible meetings as media speculation, saying Iran saw no need to meet with American officials at present.
He said Tehran would decide whether to hold direct or indirect negotiations after Washington accepted Iran's conditions.
Araghchi said an Iranian delegation had traveled to Qatar for further discussions, adding that his aide was there to continue consultations with mediators.
According to Araghchi, Iran's conditions include recognition of a new shipping route through the Strait of Hormuz that Tehran had worked out with Oman, and the closure of other routes.
He said Tehran also sought the lifting of sanctions imposed after the Islamabad Memorandum of Understanding, a reduction in US military forces in the region, the restoration of sanctions waivers for Iranian oil exports, and the release of all frozen Iranian funds, including those held in Qatar.
Iran also demanded an end to hostilities on all fronts, including Lebanon, he said.
Araghchi said mediators had presented proposals concerning Iran's nuclear program, which Tehran was reviewing as part of what he described as a second phase.
The Iranian foreign minister also said a letter from US Vice-President JD Vance had been reviewed at high-level meetings, describing the American effort to open the door to broader dialogue and understanding as a "positive step".
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In an interview with state-run IRIB TV, Secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council Mohsen Rezaei said he has read a letter from Vance but has not yet responded.
Tehran received the letter on Thursday, which called for the resumption of peace negotiations and was sent at the direction of US President Donald Trump, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Rezaei noted a shift in Washington's tone in the letter, calling it "a good sign."
He refused to provide further details, citing the US side's silence on the matter.
'Immediate, effective' response to 'enemy' threat
At a meeting with the Iranian armed forces' senior commanders, Iran's Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei has ordered that any level and kind of threat from the "enemies" must be met with an "immediate and effective" response without geographical limitations, according to a statement published on the leader's website on Saturday.
He stressed that if the "enemies" resume military or terrorist attacks against Iran, the Iranian armed forces and people will determine the time and conditions for the war's end.
Khamenei also highlighted the necessity to "strengthen the country's military intelligence architecture, deepen home-grown defense in terms of doctrine and tactics, and advance modern defense and security capabilities using cutting-edge technologies".
The supreme leader emphasized that the country's bank of targets must be updated in such a way that "various tangible and intangible assets of the US-Israeli enemy are brought within the Iranian armed forces' reach".
New list of "enemy" targets, assets
In a message carried by Iranian media, Chief of Staff of the Iranian Armed Forces Ali Abdollahi said the country's armed forces have compiled a new list of the "enemy's" targets and assets across a wider geography.
Abdollahi warned the United States and Israel that if they repeat the "aggression" against the country and its people, they will face a "new approach as well as an unimaginable and more severe and effective response" compared to the 40-day war.
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"Iran's armed forces have placed on their agenda a new bank of the enemies' targets and assets spanning a geography wider than before, and will face the adversaries with new surprises on the battlefield," he said.
