The China Mail - Iran FM blames US for failure of talks before meeting with Putin

Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi was in Saint Petersburg on the fourth leg of a whirlwind diplomatic tour, having sandwiched a trip to Oman in between two visits to main mediator Pakistan over the past few days.

Islamabad played host to the first and only round of unsuccessful talks between Washington and Tehran, and Araghchi's visit had fanned hopes for fresh negotiations over the weekend, until US President Donald Trump scrapped a planned trip by his envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner.

"The US approaches caused the previous round of negotiations, despite progress, to fail to reach its goals because of the excessive demands," Araghchi said Monday.

After nixing his emissaries' trip, Trump told Fox News that if Iran wanted talks, "they can call us" -- though he has said the cancellation does not signal a return to hostilities.

Following his meeting with Araghchi, Putin voiced his commitment to the two countries' "strategic relationship", telling the visiting diplomat: "For our part, we will do everything that serves your interests, the interests of all the people of the region, so that peace can be achieved as soon as possible."

In a sign that back-channel diplomatic efforts were ongoing, the Fars news agency said Iran had passed "written messages" to the Americans via Pakistan spelling out red lines, including nuclear issues and the Strait of Hormuz.

Fars news agency said the messages were not part of formal negotiations, however.

US media outlet Axios -- citing a US official and two other sources with knowledge of the matter -- reported on Sunday that Iran had sent a new proposal to end the war centred on reopening the Strait of Hormuz and ending a US naval blockade there, with nuclear negotiations postponed for a later stage.

Iranian state news agency IRNA cited the report without denying it.

Trump was expected to hold a meeting with his top national security advisers on Monday to discuss the stalled talks and how to proceed, Axios and ABC news reported.

- 'Global issue' -

The ceasefire in the US-Israeli war with Iran has so far held, but its economic shock waves have continued to reverberate globally.

Iran has blockaded Hormuz, cutting off flows of oil, gas and fertiliser and sending prices soaring.

In response, the US has imposed a blockade of Iranian ports in the waterway and beyond.

Trump is facing domestic pressure to find an off-ramp as fuel prices rise, with midterm elections due in November and polls showing the war is unpopular among Americans.

Iran's Revolutionary Guards, however, have said they have no intention of lifting their market-rattling blockade.

Ebrahim Azizi, head of the national security commission in Iran's parliament, told state television Monday that a proposed law for managing the strait would make the Islamic republic's armed forces the overseeing authority, with financial gains from the waterway to be paid in Iranian rial.

The subject of the strait was on the agenda during Araghchi's trip to Oman, which lies on the other side of the waterway from Iran.

"Naturally, as the two coastal countries of this strait, we must speak with each other so that our common interests are secured," Araghchi said from Saint Petersburg, calling it an "important global issue".

Iran and Oman enjoy warm ties, though the Islamic republic's relations with its other neighbours have historically been frostier, a situation exacerbated by Tehran's barrages of missile and drone attacks on Gulf states during the war.

A senior Emirati official on Monday criticised Gulf allies over what he called their weak response to Iran in the face of the attacks.

Gulf monarchies have always had "difficult relations" with Tehran, presidential adviser Anwar Gargash said, but their longstanding policy of containment has "failed miserably, and we are now facing a major reassessment".

- Violence in Lebanon -

Violence, meanwhile, has continued on the war's Lebanese front, in spite of a recently extended ceasefire between Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah, which both sides have accused the other of violating.

Hezbollah drew Lebanon into the Middle East war by firing rockets at Israel to avenge the death of Iran's supreme leader, with Israel responding with strikes and a ground invasion.

The group's leader Naim Qassem on Monday rejected planned direct negotiations between Lebanon and Israel as a "grave sin" that would destabilise the country.

"These direct negotiations and their outcomes are as if they do not exist for us," he added, vowing Hezbollah "will not back down".

Shortly afterwards, the Israeli military said it had begun hitting "Hezbollah infrastructure sites in the Bekaa valley" and southern Lebanon.

Israel maintains that under the terms of the truce, it can act against "planned, imminent or ongoing attacks".

Lebanese President Joseph Aoun, responding to Qassem, said his "goal is to reach an end to the state of war with Israel".

"What we are doing is not treason," he said of the negotiations. "Rather, treason is committed by those who take their country to war to achieve foreign interests."

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P.Deng--ThChM