Araghchi says Iran and Russia discussed possible US talks and Hormuz Strait
Iran's foreign minister points to a new diplomatic channel as tanker traffic through the strait stays depressed by mines, fires and a sinking.
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Map: The Gulf and Hormuz, marking Strait of Hormuz
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi says Iran and Russia discussed the possibility of talks with the United States and the situation in the Strait of Hormuz.
The comment follows Araghchi's own six-day conditional offer: talks with Washington would resume on the seventh day if the US meets Iran's conditions, with the strait potentially reopening within six days. That offer has not produced an accepted framework.
The diplomatic track comes against a tense backdrop. An IRGC spokesman has warned that a limited US strike would spark a global energy crisis, after a reported tanker sinking in the strait and US consideration of a bunker-buster weapon against Iran. Trump has backed Netanyahu and said the US would act alone against Iran, describing the country as having been systematically destroyed militarily and financially and warning of finishing the job. Separately, Trump has said Russia must stay away from Iran while Russia and Ukraine discuss peace negotiations, a line that sharpens the question of what role Moscow is meant to play in any Iran-US channel.
Adding Russia to the mix gives Tehran another line of contact in a process that has produced talks, proposals and deadlines for weeks without any deal taking hold, including the earlier six-day offer that echoed previous ultimatums that lapsed. It shows Iran working more than one channel at once, but it does not touch the dispute over sequencing the blockade that has stalled every prior attempt. Mines, tanker fires and a sinking have kept transit through the strait far below pre-conflict levels, and that physical reality is unchanged by Monday's statement.