Iran sends nuclear proposal to US through Qatar, official says

Iran has sent a proposal on its nuclear programme to the United States through Qatar, a senior Iranian official told Reuters, as the two governments weigh terms for ending a war that has shut most shipping out of the Strait of Hormuz.

The New York Times reported that Iranian officials said they were reviewing "concrete proposals" on the nuclear programme. Bloomberg reported that both Washington and Tehran were examining proposals to end the war. None of the reports set out what the proposals contain.

Manouchehr Mottaki, a member of Iran's parliament and foreign minister under former president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, told Euronews the standoff in the strait was "not sustainable". "The immediate obstacle to moving beyond this situation is the blockade, a blockade that the Americans are carrying out illegally, in violation of international law," he said.

Iran has mounted its own blockade, saying vessels from China, India, Iraq and Qatar may pass freely while ships from countries it considers aligned with the US are blocked or targeted. Mottaki said the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy had spent the past 10 days trying to bring unauthorised transit to zero. "Every day, three, four, five, or even seven ships are being immobilised or stranded at sea as a result of encounters with mines or drone and missile projectiles," he said.

The strait between Iran and Oman is the only sea route out of the Persian Gulf and carries about a fifth of the world's oil supply.

Tehran says Hormuz will reopen only once Washington accepts seven conditions, among them ending the US naval blockade, lifting oil sanctions, unfreezing Iranian assets held abroad and halting the wider Middle East war. Mottaki called lifting the blockade a precondition for resuming talks.

The diplomacy has widened beyond Qatar. Mohsen Rezaei, secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, travelled to Russia to meet President Vladimir Putin, carrying what outlets close to the Revolutionary Guard described as a message from Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, with ending the war the main subject. Rezaei had earlier told US Vice President JD Vance, in a reply to a letter, that Washington's proposals were not convincing and that Iran's conditions must be met in full.

The contacts follow US midterm elections that reopened arguments inside the Trump administration over the war. Vance attributed the Republicans' heavy defeat to the decision to strike Iran. Trump said the war contributed to the defeat but that he would make the same decision again, and that he had no immediate plans to attack Iran while not ruling out further use of force. US media reported that a large joint military operation with Israel remained under consideration.

Parliament speaker Mohammad Ghalibaf addressed Vance directly in a post on social media. "Your boss is preparing the next stage of the war, while America is on the verge of falling into Israel's fire pit," he said.