Iranian envoys meet Qatari mediators as threat looms of US strikes after midterms

DUBAI/ATLANTA

Iranian negotiators held talks in Doha with Qatari mediators on Saturday to discuss paths out of war in the Gulf, a source who was briefed on the negotiations told Reuters, as diplomats try to avert new fighting after the US midterm elections this week.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Saturday that President Donald Trump has not decided whether to launch new strikes against Iran, but would prefer to resolve the conflict diplomatically.

Trump has held off on strikes on Iran in recent weeks ahead of midterm elections that will determine whether his Republican Party will retain its thin majorities in both houses of the US Congress.

Saturday’s talks in the Qatari capital followed more than 12 hours of discussions on Friday between Iranian and Qatari envoys in Tehran, said the source, who spoke on condition of anonymity. The source ‌said the talks ‌were being coordinated in regular contacts with Washington.

Countries in the region have been anticipating that ​Trump could ‌restart ⁠attacks once ​the ⁠voting is over. Iran has repeatedly said it would respond to any new attacks by striking at US and Israeli targets in neighboring countries.

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei issued a statement on Saturday ordering the armed forces to be prepared to respond to any attacks. The Iranian military later announced it was taking steps to improve its readiness.

“Any level or type of threat must be met with an immediate, impactful, and geographically unrestricted response,” Khamenei said on Saturday in the statement posted on his official Telegram account. He has not appeared in public since replacing his father, who was slain at the war’s outset.

Khamenei said senior commanders had reported high readiness along the Gulf coast, in and around the Strait of Hormuz ⁠and Gulf of Oman, and on Iran’s northwestern and southeastern borders.

Iran’s influential security chief Mohsen Rezaei said ‌Tehran was debating whether to lift its longstanding ban on nuclear weapons should hostilities resume, although ‌he said no such decision had been taken. There could be no talks on ​Iran’s nuclear program unless Washington accepted Iran’s demands, he added.

Rubio, hosting foreign ‌ministers of the G20 major economies in Atlanta, declined to set a timeframe for the talks in Qatar, but said direct and ‌indirect contacts with Iran were under way.

“There are multiple talks. Talks have actually never stopped,” he said.

Trump would “prefer to solve it diplomatically. But I think what the president expresses to you is incredible confidence that if we needed to do something militarily, we would have the ability to do it,” Rubio said.