- Iran's foreign minister receives direct messages from US envoy but denies ongoing negotiations
- Iran has not responded to the US 15-point proposal or set any conditions
- Iran seeks a regional ceasefire, rejecting temporary pauses in hostilities
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said that he has been receiving direct messages from US special envoy Steve Witkoff but clarified that it does not mean Tehran is in "negotiations" with Washington.
Speaking to Al Jazeera, Araghchi said, "I receive messages from Witkoff directly, as before, and this does not mean that we are in negotiations."
Araghchi claimed that Iran has not sent either a response to the 15-point proposal by the US or any conditions.
He said that the Islamic Republic is only open to a cessation of hostilities in the entire region and not a temporary ceasefire. Moreover, he said that Iran has reservations about negotiations with the US.
Araghchi on Tuesday issued a warning against Israel "unashamedly" bombing pharmaceutical companies as part of the Iranian infrastructure the US and Israel have been targeting since the war began.
"Their intentions are clear. What they've gotten wrong is that they're not dealing with defenseless Palestinian civilians. Our Powerful Armed Forces will severely punish aggressors," he wrote on X.
Trump's Message To UK, Other Countries On Hormuz Strait
More than a month after the US and Israel launched their first strikes, Iran maintains its chokehold on the Strait of Hormuz.
US President Donald Trump called for countries that did not help the US in strikes against Iran to "Go get your own oil". In a post on Truth Social, he wrote that the countries that "refused to get involved in the decapitation of Iran" should either buy oil from the US or go through the Strait of Hormuz and "just take it".
In the next half of his post, he expressed his frustration toward allies and said they will have to learn how to "fight" for themselves and that the United States will not be there to assist them any further, just like how the allies were not there for America.
Iran's stranglehold on the Strait of Hormuz, the waterway leading out of the Persian Gulf through which a fifth of the world's oil is transported during peacetime, has driven up global oil prices, as have Tehran's attacks on regional energy infrastructure. That has shaken stock markets around the world and pushed up the cost of many basic goods.
