The latest:
Iran and the United States remain far apart on a deal to end the war, a senior Iranian official told Reuters on Tuesday, even as Qatari mediators arrived in Tehran with a draft text. The same night, US forces struck Iran’s Qeshm Island in what an American official called a defensive response. Iran’s Revolutionary Guard said it shot down a US MQ-9 drone east of the Strait of Hormuz.
Details:
- The Iranian position: The senior official told Reuters that Washington’s excessive demands are unacceptable and that mediators are working to narrow the gaps. He set a strict sequence: Iran’s conditions must be met before the Strait of Hormuz reopens, and nuclear talks can only begin after that.
- The strike: A US official said the overnight strikes on Qeshm targeted surface-to-air missiles being used against American assets, calling the operation defensive and neither a resumption of attacks on Iran nor the start of escalation. Fox News reported the strike followed an attempt to fire on a US aircraft.
- Iran’s claim: The Revolutionary Guard said air defenses destroyed an MQ-9 drone east of the Strait of Hormuz, and separately said two MQM-170 drones were downed and captured south of Lakshm.
- The wider campaign: The Wall Street Journal reported that US forces have struck Iran for weeks on a limited, defensive scale aimed mainly at preventing attacks on commercial shipping in Hormuz. A source cited by the paper said Washington is preserving ambiguity to avoid signaling a return to full-scale combat.
- Trump’s signals: The US president said Monday that Iran wants a deal as soon as possible and an agreement could take shape, while casting doubt on whether he would resume strikes after Tuesday’s midterm elections. In a Fox News interview he said he may have to hit Mount Pickaxe, a site tied to Iran’s nuclear program.
- Iran’s five conditions: Armed forces chief Ali Abdollahi listed Tehran’s terms: ending the war on all fronts including Lebanon and Gaza; full sanctions relief and release of frozen assets; war reparations; recognition of Iranian sovereignty over Hormuz under a mechanism replacing the US security umbrella; and guarantees against future aggression.
- The parliament line: Speaker Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf said Tehran has delivered a decisive and considered response and the ball is now in Washington’s court. He said Iran will not surrender to threats, that its reply to any miscalculation would be unbound by geography, and that defensive readiness is at its highest level.
- Military warning: Military spokesman Mohammad Akhrami Nia said any further US aggression would meet an immediate and crushing response on a wider scale, and that a new war would not stay confined to West Asia. He said Iranian forces are updating a target database covering US and Israeli assets.
- Regional track: Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said on X that Iran is continuing talks with Saudi Arabia on regional security arrangements run by the region’s own states, without foreign military presence. Senior Saudi, Turkish and Pakistani officials met Iranian counterparts in Tehran last week, their first high-level contact since August.
- The Yemen front: Riyadh said the Tehran visit aimed to open negotiating channels to prevent renewed escalation, as fighting intensifies with the Houthis. The group has struck Saudi oil facilities and airports including Riyadh International, disrupting crude exports and flights and drawing Saudi airstrikes on Yemen.
Background:
The US-Israeli war on Iran began in late February and later widened to include Saudi Arabia and Yemen. The Qeshm strikes mark the first attacks on Iranian territory since September. The draft deal now circulating has been under negotiation for eight days.
Between the lines:
The two sides are arguing less over terms than over sequence. Tehran’s five conditions — reparations, sanctions relief, sovereignty over Hormuz — are placed before any nuclear discussion, while Washington describes its strikes as defensive and denies escalation. Trump reads Iran as in a hurry; the sequencing relayed to Reuters, plus Qalibaf’s insistence the ball is in Washington’s court, suggests Tehran is not acting like a side under time pressure.
What’s next
Watch whether Qatari mediators return from Tehran with a revised draft, whether Trump resumes strikes after Tuesday’s midterm results, and whether the Saudi-Iranian security channel produces anything concrete on Yemen.
