India Can Be "Trusted" Player In Reducing Middle East Tensions: Iran Envoy

Tehran believes that New Delhi could be a trusted player in reducing tensions between Iran and the United States amid the escalating war in the Middle East. Iran's ambassador to India, Mohammad Fathali, said that India maintains historical and strategic relations with warring parties -- the United States and Israel, and Iran -- and can play an "effective and positive" role in reducing tensions. 

"India can certainly play an effective and positive role in reducing tensions. As a major actor in the Global South and given its balanced foreign policy, India holds a special position to help de-escalate tensions and facilitate dialogue," he said while speaking in New Delhi. 

"India maintains historical and strategic relations with all parties, which enables it to act as a trusted player in reducing misunderstandings and strengthening diplomatic pathways," Fathali added. 

US Push For Diplomacy

The Iranian envoy's remarks came after US President Donald Trump announced a temporary pause on American escalation and called on Tehran to return to the negotiation table. Washington has sent a 15-point plan to Tehran for a possible ceasefire, according to an Associated Press report, even as it began to move paratroopers to the Gulf to back up a contingent of Marines heading there on Wednesday.

Iran's military has, meanwhile, scoffed at the diplomatic effort and launched more attacks on Israel and the Gulf region, including an assault that sparked a fire at Kuwait International Airport.

With growing pressure on the United States to end the war as it nears the end of its first month, US officials have submitted the plan to Iran through intermediaries from Pakistan, who have offered to host renewed negotiations. Trump has also said that American officials are in negotiations with Iran, though he hasn't said who they are in contact with. 

Iran's Defiance

Iran's Khatam Al-Anbiya Central Headquarters, which commands both the regular military and the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, meanwhile, suggested that there are no talks.

"Have your internal conflicts reached the point where you are negotiating with yourselves?" said Lt. Col. Ebrahim Zolfaghari, a spokesman for the headquarters.

"Our first and last word has been the same from day one, and it will stay that way: Someone like us will never come to terms with someone like you," Zolfaghari said in the video statement aired on state television. "Not now, not ever."

Iran remains highly suspicious of the United States, which, twice under the Trump administration, has attacked during high-level diplomatic talks, including with the strikes that started the current war.

Zolfaghari said that the US was in no position to negotiate. "The strategic power you used to talk about has turned into a strategic failure," he said. "The one claiming to be a global superpower would have already gotten out of this mess if it could."