Iran FM says no negotiations since ‘shock’ of US midterms

TEHRAN: Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said on Sunday that mediators striving for a peace deal between the US and Iran had not traveled at all since the “shock” of the US midterm elections.

“We now have to see how long it will take for them to digest these results, in order to determine how we are going to move forward,” the top Iranian diplomat told state TV following the elections in which the Republican Party of US President Donald Trump suffered heavy losses.

Various regional powers, including Qatar and Pakistan, have been trying for months without success to bring a definitive halt to the war launched by the United States and Israel in late February.

Outright fighting has largely subsided, but Iran continues in its efforts to blockade the Strait of Hormuz, vital to global energy supplies, while the US Navy maintains its own counterblockade of Iranian ports.