Iran, US press ahead on text of possible deal: UN envoy
Iran’s Ambassador to the United Nations Amir-Saeid Iravani said on Monday that Tehran and Washington are still exchanging views to finalize the text of a possible agreement to end the US-Israeli aggression against Iran.
Speaking to reporters after a UN Security Council meeting in New York, Iravani said that both sides have yet to reach consensus on the final document, expressing hope that negotiations could yield a conclusion in the near future.
Asked whether an agreement could be reached by the end of the month, he replied, “We hope so.”
On Sunday, Pakistan’s Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi, whose country is mediating negotiations between Iran and the US, delivered a message from the country’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif addressed to Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Mojtaba Khamenei.
Talks have been at an impasse due to the US excessive demands in recent weeks. However, the mediator Pakistan is trying to revive the negotiations which aim to produce a memorandum to end the joint US-Israeli aggression against Iran, end a blockade on Iran’s ports, and secure the release of frozen Iranian assets.
US President Donald Trump on Tuesday said negotiations are in their final stages, after Iran and Israel halted fresh attacks that threatened to reignite the months-long conflict.
Iran fired missiles at Israel on Sunday in response to strikes against Lebanon's Hezbollah in the southern suburbs of Beirut, before Israel struck back despite Trump's efforts to dissuade Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu from doing so.
Iran and Israel "were going back and forth and now they both agreed through me to stop and we're in the final throes of what will be a very, very good deal," the US leader told reporters on his return from an NBA Finals game.
When asked whether a deal would be a matter of days or weeks, he said it would take "two or three days."
Tehran is insisting a halt to the conflict between Iran and the US must include a truce in Lebanon.
In the recent escalation of attacks, Iran fired nearly 30 missiles at Israel, according to the Israeli military, while Israel struck military and industrial sites in Iran.
Iran said on Tuesday that two members of the "Army Air Defense Force" were killed in Israeli strikes a day earlier.
And despite Iranian demands, Israel has kept up its attacks on Lebanon, where it is fighting Hezbollah.