Iran’s currency fell to a new record low on Tuesday, with traders in Tehran exchanging more than 2.5 million rials to the U.S. dollar in a stark reflection of how the war in the Middle East has steadily eroded the Iranian economy.
Araghchi made the comments shortly before departing New York — where he attended last week’s gathering of world leaders at the U.N. General Assembly — and after meeting with Pakistani and Qatari mediators.
Meanwhile, Iran’s top diplomat said indirect negotiations with the United States aimed at reopening the critical Strait of Hormuz have become “more serious,” while the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps’ chief spokesman spokesman Gen. Hossein Mohebbi on Tuesday called on Americans to take to the streets and protest the conflict. Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi told Iranian media late on Monday that the “current focus is solely on the Strait of Hormuz.
The US president predicted soon after launching the war that the conflict would last a matter of weeks.
More recently, he’s said that the war will likely end after the November elections in the US. Meanwhile, the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps on Tuesday made an appeal to everyday Americans to push their government to end the U.S. war against Iran, a provocative appeal that comes just weeks before critical midterm elections in the United States.
“If there is a response, the Qataris will convey it to us and a decision will be made in Tehran on that basis. The mediation efforts continue even after U.S.
Araghchi said that the Qatari intermediaries were expected to soon engage with the U.S. side. “They are set to raise the matter with the American side once more, after which the final US response will be conveyed to us”, Araghchi said.
President Donald Trump earlier this week spurned an Iranian proposal to reopen the strait in seven days if the U.S. agreed to lift its blockade of Iranian ports, release frozen Iranian assets and waive sanctions on Iranian oil sales, among other conditions.
