Gulf states draft multipart peace deal to avert renewed US-Iran war

Gulf states are assembling a multipart peace deal intended to stop the war between Iran and the United States from reigniting, the Guardian reports, and Washington is following the talks' progress. Qatar presented a draft to Iranian negotiators on Sunday; by Wednesday a senior Iranian official had dismissed it as "unacceptable", telling Reuters that Tehran would show no flexibility on the nuclear issue.

The outline would reopen the Strait of Hormuz, lift sanctions on Iran and secure the withdrawal of substantial Houthi forces from Yemen. Tehran's declared interest covers the first two items and little else: Ali Bagheri, deputy secretary of the national security council, has offered to cut the interval between sanctions relief and the strait's reopening from seven days to four. Reuters reported that a revised draft — a seven-day timeline of daily confidence-building steps for each side — was under consideration, with a response expected by the end of the week; within hours another senior official denied any new proposal had been presented at all.

The nuclear file is where everything stalls. European diplomats describe the readmission of UN weapons inspectors, including to Iran's bombed nuclear sites, as the minimum requirement for a breakthrough with Donald Trump; Iran has refused, saying the programme cannot be negotiated until the fighting ends. The British foreign secretary, Ed Miliband, pressed his Iranian counterpart Abbas Araghchi on the point in New York, without result.

Tehran is meanwhile pursuing its own settlement. A day after a delegation from Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Pakistan arrived to discuss Saudi terms for ending the war in Yemen, Mohsen Rezaei, secretary of the supreme national security council, met the Houthi ambassador to Iran — the clearest sign yet that Tehran accepts a mediating role over a movement it supports, and which is demanding that Riyadh lift what it calls a naval and air blockade of Houthi-held territory. Iran kept its nuclear programme off that agenda entirely, steering the visitors toward a long-term security vision that includes, in Tehran's framing, the reduction or end of the American presence in the Middle East. Officials describe the country's highest strategic goal as a non-aggression pact ending the ostracism that has held since the 1979 revolution.

The Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday that the United States has told several Gulf Arab countries to prepare for a short, intense military campaign after the midterm elections in early November. An additional Patriot battery is being flown to Israel from Texas, and American troops are being moved back from bases in and near the Gulf, out of harm's way. President Trump, who spent last week talking of joining Israel to "finish the job" against Iran, told reporters: "We didn't start the war with Iran. Iran started the war with us."

Oman's foreign minister, Badr Albusaidi, said he believes the US administration understands the direction the region is heading. The Patriot battery is en route from Texas.