Iran has offered to reopen the Strait of Hormuz within seven days if the US eases its military pressure on the Islamic Republic.
A delegation of senior Iranian officials arrived in New York on Tuesday to attend the UN General Assembly, with a mandate to try to restart peace talks with the US after their fragile agreement expired last month.
A senior Iranian official said it was seeking a reduction in US military pressure and the lifting of a naval blockade on its ports, and was prepared to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, which Tehran shut in retaliation for American and Israeli strikes.
One official told The Telegraph from Tehran: “The main goal would be to tell world leaders about American crimes, and there are no plans to have any meeting with Americans.”
“The delegation has full authority,” the first Iranian official said, calling the New York trip a decisive moment, and insisting Iran’s core demands “have not changed”.
Marco Rubio, the US secretary of state, told NBC on Tuesday that the US was open to speaking with Iranians but no meeting had been arranged.
“We’re open to that,” Marco Rubio said. “I don’t think anything is scheduled at this point, but we’re certainly open to something like that, especially if it has the prospects of leading to something positive and ultimately achieving the goal of what this is all about.
“And that is the fact that Iran can never have a nuclear weapon. They just simply can’t.”
