Seven-Day Deal Leaves War to State Mediators

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Wednesday that Tehran remained in close contact with intermediaries over a plan to end the war, while the United States and Israel have launched attacks and Donald Trump has threatened to strike Iran again. The proposal is being tested through state-to-state diplomacy, with ordinary people outside the negotiating room as the governments and mediators discuss conditions, timelines and guarantees.

A plan measured in days

Araghchi said Iran continued to give diplomacy a chance. Tehran’s seven-day plan, he said, could be completed in less than a week if implemented. He has said it could allow the Strait of Hormuz, one of the world’s most important energy shipping channels, to reopen if certain conditions were met. The channel’s possible reopening is tied to a proposal negotiated by governments, while the conflict has already disrupted global shipping and oil supplies.

US President Donald Trump rejected Iran’s proposal, prompting further Qatari mediation. On Sunday, Qatari mediators presented Iran with a new draft deal to end the war with the US and Israel, according to an official briefed on the negotiations. Iran later rejected that draft. The official said it proposed a seven-day timeline for addressing concerns from Tehran and Washington, with daily confidence-building steps for each side. The timeline could begin early next week, and several countries would act as guarantors.

A senior Iranian official disputed that account. Qatar, the official told Reuters, had not presented a proposal to Iran but had instead put forward ideas that were unacceptable. Tehran would show no flexibility on the nuclear issue, the official said. The two accounts leave the immediate negotiations looking less like a settled route out of war than another exchange of terms between state representatives.

Threats behind the talks

Qatar and Pakistan have led mediation efforts. The US and Israel launched the war in February, and the conflict has spread into other parts of the Middle East. The latest diplomatic effort unfolds alongside threats of renewed military force: Trump repeated threats to strike Iran again on Friday.

The official briefed on the negotiations said concerns had arisen before Sunday’s meeting in Tehran that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who was fighting for another term in a general election, could resume attacks on Iran that week. The stated concern was about the possibility of further attacks; the account does not say that they took place.

An agreement without guarantees of peace

Mediation had produced an interim peace agreement in June. It quickly unraveled. That earlier failure sits behind the current promises of daily steps and guarantor countries: the draft’s timeline describes what negotiators might do, not a completed agreement or an end to the war.

The proposals reported here come from Iran, the United States, Qatar and Pakistan, with Israel also central to the war and the threat of renewed attacks. The account names no grassroots organizations or community-led negotiations. Its terms are set by officials, and the main measures described concern state security positions, nuclear issues, shipping and oil supplies. Araghchi says Tehran is still in contact with intermediaries; a senior Iranian official says the ideas put forward were unacceptable. For now, diplomacy has not prevented threats, and the earlier interim agreement did not hold.