Mohsen Rezaei, secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, said on Sunday 11 October that the United States had accepted some of the seven conditions submitted by Tehran as part of contacts between the two countries. He described the US response to Iran’s proposals as “insufficient” and said Washington’s position on the other conditions remained unclear.
Mediation channels and conditions for reopening Hormuz
According to Rezaei, the Iranian conditions concern reopening the Strait of Hormuz, as indirect contacts between Tehran and Washington continue. The Iranian official said the United States had contacted his country through three channels over the past two months — Pakistan, Qatar and Iraq — and asked Iran to submit its proposals. Iran’s Foreign Ministry confirmed that messages were continuing to be exchanged with the United States through intermediaries.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Ismail Baghaei said Tehran was still studying the US response to its proposal on reopening the Strait of Hormuz and would send its reply to Washington through intermediaries once the review was complete. Rezaei said the Supreme National Security Council considered the US response to Tehran’s proposals insufficient.
Tehran stands by the seven conditions
In other remarks on Sunday, he added that Iran would decide when the confrontation ended, stressing that Tehran would continue what he described as resistance until its legitimate demands were met. Hassan Qashqavi, spokesman for the Iranian Parliament’s National Security and Foreign Policy Committee, reaffirmed Tehran’s commitment to the seven conditions put forward as part of negotiations with the United States under what is known as the “Seven-Day Plan”.
Qashqavi said the conditions had been approved by the “highest authorities” in Iran’s system and therefore could not be amended or abandoned at any level of decision-making. He added that the seven conditions were “not open to negotiation or review” and had been communicated by the highest authorities, confirming that Iran’s negotiating position remained unchanged.
The Iranian parliamentary official said previous experience with Washington required the conditions to be implemented in full before Tehran took any further steps. He accused the United States of backing away from previous commitments and moving away from the diplomatic path, as the sides continued to exchange messages indirectly.
Trump and Bessent step up pressure on Iran
By contrast, US President Donald Trump said Iran had begun to calm down “somewhat”, suggesting that Tehran might take some steps before the US midterm elections scheduled for next November. He added that his administration continued to monitor developments concerning Iran amid ongoing tensions between the two countries.
Trump’s remarks came as US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced that Washington was shifting from its policy of “maximum pressure” on Iran to a campaign he described as “total isolation”. According to Bessent, the campaign aims to sever Iran’s ties with the outside world and increase pressure on its financial resources. In remarks to Fox News, the US Treasury secretary claimed that Iran was facing collapse and could not pay its soldiers’ salaries.
He predicted that continued pressure would eventually lead Tehran to surrender and seek de-escalation. Amid tensions between the two sides, US media reports said the Defence Department was considering possible military plans to resume strikes before the midterm elections, if a decision was made to do so.
Iranian warnings of a new round of war
The reports come as indirect correspondence continues over Iran’s conditions and the US response to them. The Iranian newspaper Khorasan, which is close to Parliament Speaker Mohammad Baqer Ghalibaf, said Washington and Tel Aviv had decided to begin a new round of war. It said the exchange of messages between Iran and the United States was unlikely to produce tangible results before a new confrontation broke out.
In a report published on Sunday, the newspaper added that following the previous week’s developments and analysing them led, in its view, to the conclusion that a decision to begin a future war had been taken in Washington and Tel Aviv. It also said Tehran’s accumulated experience in dealing with the Americans led it to believe that the exchange of messages would have no tangible impact, at least until after the confrontation anticipated by the newspaper.
Khorasan also criticised what it described as political polarisation within Iran, saying the reformist camp had tied its political survival for decades to negotiations and engagement with the United States, while the opposing camp had tied its political future to rejecting negotiations and dealings with the West.
Iranian positions insisting on the seven conditions coincide with Tehran’s continued study of the US response and its announcement that it will reply through intermediaries.
At the same time, the US administration is pressing ahead with tighter financial and political pressure on Iran through its “total isolation” campaign, while communication channels through Pakistan, Qatar and Iraq remain open between the two sides.
