Iran’s negotiating team has departed from talks in Doha with Qatari mediators working to end the war with the United States, and a draft proposal is now making the rounds, with the possibility of another meeting, according to an official briefed on the negotiations who spoke on Monday.

The official said the Iranian team left on Sunday, and stressed that the departure was not due to problems in the talks. No details of the draft were disclosed.

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei said the talks are built on a seven-step plan that Tehran put forward in September, under which the Strait of Hormuz would be reopened and the U.S. naval blockade of Iran lifted. Iran is now proposing that the plan be carried out more quickly as part of a deal. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi told Al Jazeera on Saturday that the strait could be reopened within two days, instead of the seven days first proposed.

According to Baghaei, Deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Gharibabadi was in Doha to help pass messages between Tehran and Washington through the Qatari mediators. Baghaei made clear that no final agreement can be reached, and the Strait of Hormuz cannot be reopened or secured, until the American blockade is lifted and Iran’s demands are accepted.

Baghaei also rejected the idea of moving Iran’s stockpile of 60 percent enriched uranium to another country. “No such proposal is under consideration,” he said, as quoted by the state-run ISNA news agency. “Given the conduct of the United States, the negotiation process has become prolonged, and the United States must now decide on the path forward.”

The spokesman added that a letter recently sent by Vice President JD Vance to Mohsen Rezaei, secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, was not a new diplomatic initiative. Asked about Tuesday’s U.S. midterm elections, he said Iran did not expect the vote to “give birth to a new US.”

Speaking at a rally in Dubuque, Iowa, on Sunday, President Trump said his special envoy, Steve Witkoff, is working on a deal with Tehran. “The only reason why I’m not finished with Iran is I want to be nice. I want to try and save all those lives if I can,” Trump said. “But at some point we’re going to have to give them the hammer.”

The President also said he had “a good call with Netanyahu,” adding: “We talked about Iran.” Trump, who rejected Iran’s original proposal, has pledged not to launch new strikes on Iran before the midterms, but has left the door open to further military action.

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)