The “two-day plan” to open the Strait of Hormuz.. Araqchi reveals where the consultations with Qatari mediators have reached

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said on Sunday that consultations with Qatari mediators regarding the “two-day plan” related to opening the Strait of Hormuz are still continuing, indicating that Tehran has not yet reached a final result, and that this depends on the answers provided by the other party to Iranian questions. According to the official Iranian News Agency (IRNA), Araqchi’s statements came “on the sidelines of a meeting of the National Security and Foreign Policy Committee of the Islamic Shura Council,” noting that an Iranian delegation visited Qatar at the level of Deputy Foreign Minister, with the aim of continuing consultations with Qatari mediators, who had made visits to Tehran during the past weeks.

The Iranian Foreign Minister stressed that “there was basically no determination in this visit to negotiate with the American party,” adding: “At the present time, consultations on the two-day plan with the mediators of the negotiations continue and are ongoing, but we have not yet reached a final result, and reaching the result depends on the answers that the other party provides to our questions.” Araqchi reminded: "We are making every effort on this path, and we hope that the other party will have reason to prefer diplomacy over other paths."

Regarding Iranian military preparations, he pointed out that “the directives issued by the Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces and addressed to senior military leaders clearly demonstrated the will of the Islamic Republic of Iran, and that our armed forces have a completely specific mission, and have become much stronger than before by benefiting from the experiences of the past two wars.” The Iranian Foreign Minister concluded his speech by stressing that "the Islamic Republic of Iran remains ready for defense and diplomacy at the same time, and that the Americans' choice of any path depends on their rationality."

These consultations come in the wake of putting forward a new proposal in coordination with mediators, aiming to reduce the period required to fully reopen the Strait of Hormuz to two days, compared to the proposal presented by Tehran last month to restart the vital waterway. In an opinion article published by the British newspaper Financial Times last month, Araqchi proposed the “seven-day plan,” which includes reopening the Strait of Hormuz on the sixth day, and resuming negotiations with the United States to reach a final agreement on the seventh day, as part of a proposal to end the war and return the situation in the region to normal.