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Former Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif has proposed a roadmap for ending the United States-Israeli war on Iran as tensions escalate across the Middle East.<\/p>\n
Zarif\u2019s plan was published by Foreign Affairs magazine on Friday and goes \u201cbeyond a temporary ceasefire\u201d.<\/p>\n list of 4 items<\/span>end of list<\/span><\/section>\n The war, which erupted on February 28 with US-Israeli strikes on Iran<\/a>, has spread across the Middle East and convulsed the global economy as Tehran attacked its neighbours, claiming to be targeting US assets there and restricting movement of vessels in the Strait of Hormuz.<\/p>\n Regional hostilities showed no signs of abating<\/a> on Sunday, a day after US President Donald Trump said Iran had 48 hours to cut a deal or face \u201call hell\u201d.<\/p>\n Against this backdrop, Zarif\u2019s roadmap said that although Iran viewed itself as successful in the war, prolonging the conflict \u2013 while potentially \u201cpsychologically satisfying\u201d for Tehran \u2013 would only result in further loss of civilian lives and destruction of infrastructure.<\/p>\n Iran should, therefore, offer to \u201cplace limits on its nuclear program\u201d under international monitoring as well as \u201creopen the Strait of Hormuz in exchange for an end to all sanctions\u201d, Zarif wrote.<\/p>\n Since the war began, Iran has virtually blocked the key waterway, through which one-fifth of the world\u2019s crude oil and natural gas supplies normally pass.<\/p>\n Nuclear limits on Iran would include a commitment to never seek nuclear weapons and to blend its entire stockpile of enriched uranium so its enrichment levels fall below 3.67 percent, Zarif said.<\/p>\n According to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) estimates, Iran is believed to have about 440kg (970lb) of uranium enriched to 60 percent, a level at which uranium can be quickly enriched to the 90 percent threshold needed to produce a nuclear weapon.<\/p>\n Zarif called Trump\u2019s demand for zero enrichment \u201cfanciful\u201d thinking.<\/p>\n Iran should also \u201caccept a mutual nonaggression pact with the United States\u201d in which both countries pledge to not strike each other in the future, the former minister said.<\/p>\n The US should also end all sanctions and United Nations Security Council resolutions against Iran, he added.<\/p>\n Zarif also outlined potential roles for regional and international actors.<\/p>\n He suggested that China and Russia along with the US could help create a regional fuel-enrichment consortium with Iran and its Gulf neighbours at West Asia\u2019s sole enrichment facility with Iran transferring all enriched material and equipment there.<\/p>\n Zarif additionally proposed that Gulf states, UN Security Council powers and possibly Egypt, Pakistan and Turkiye should form a regional security framework to \u201censure nonaggression, cooperation and freedom of navigation\u201d, including arrangements to guarantee safe passage through the Strait of Hormuz.<\/p>\n \u201cTo further consolidate peace, Iran and the United States should initiate mutually beneficial trade, economic and technological cooperation,\u201d Zarif added.<\/p>\n The Iranian politician said this roadmap would benefit Trump, offering him a \u201cwell-timed off-ramp\u201d and an opportunity to claim peace.<\/p>\n \u201cEmotions may be high, and each side is boasting about its war-front victories. But history best remembers those who make peace,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n The US has presented Iran with a 15-point plan for a ceasefire as Pakistan, Turkiye and Egypt have been trying to achieve direct talks, but there has been no signs of progress<\/a> on the diplomatic front.<\/p>\n Officials from Gulf states have responded to Zarif\u2019s proposal, criticising it for overlooking Tehran\u2019s attacks against its neighbours.<\/p>\n \u201cReading M. Javad Zarif\u2019s article in Foreign Affairs ignores one of the core flaws in Iran\u2019s strategy: aggression against its Gulf Arab neighbors,\u201d Anwar Gargash, the diplomatic adviser to the president of the United Arab Emirates, said on X on Saturday.<\/p>\n \u201cThousands of missiles & drones targeting infrastructure, civilians, even mediators, is not strength; it is hubris & strategic failure. The Arab world has seen this before: destruction peddled as victory,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n Former Qatari Prime Minister Hamad bin Jassim Al Thani also responded to Zarif\u2019s plan, writing on X on Sunday that he \u201cagreed with much of it\u201d and it took a \u201cclever\u201d approach.<\/p>\n Still, he pushed back, stating that the war has \u201cled us all into a path that is more complicated and dangerous\u201d and chiding Iran for its attacks on the Gulf.<\/p>\n \u201cYou may believe that you have achieved progress in some aspects, and perhaps temporary tactical gains, but the cost was clear: the loss of an important part of your friends in the region, and the erosion of the trust that was built over years,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n \u201cToday, we need a voice like yours [Zarif\u2019s] merging from within Iran to propose solutions to this war,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n<\/div>\nRecommended Stories <\/h2>\n
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