Iran pushes 7-day peace plan

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Iran remained in close contact with intermediaries about its seven-day plan, which would involve reopening the Strait of Hormuz, while the United States is reportedly mulling fresh strikes against Iran after US midterm elections.

In a social media post late on Wednesday, Araghchi said Iran's "brave armed forces" are fully prepared to defend the homeland but Tehran "continues to give diplomacy a chance to succeed".

"We remain in close and ongoing contact with intermediaries to review ideas that can ensure implementation of our 7-Day Plan in even less than a week," he wrote on X.

Araghchi said such a reopening could happen even faster than envisaged, under the seven-day plan Iran put forward in September.

Under Iran's proposal — relayed to the US through Qatar — Tehran would reopen the strait and resume negotiations within a week if its conditions were accepted.

The US would also end the aggression against Iran, lift the naval blockade, ease restrictions on Iranian oil exports, and release its frozen assets within five days. Once the conditions are met, Iran would reopen the key waterway to commercial shipping on the sixth day and resume talks with the US on the seventh day for a final deal.

However, the Associated Press reported on Thursday that US officials have told several Middle East countries and regional allies to be prepared for potential fresh strikes against Iran after the US midterm elections on Nov 3 and the possibility of Tehran retaliating, citing two diplomats briefed on the matter.

US President Donald Trump has not made a final decision on whether to carry out new strikes against Iran, the diplomats said. Trump has said there would be no strikes before the elections, but he has repeatedly said he is weighing new military action after elections.

Reports denied

Trump has also denied reports that he directed US Vice-President JD Vance to speak to Iran to restart peace talks, saying Iran needed help with "medical supplies".

The rejection follows a Wall Street Journal report that Vance had sent a letter to Iran's Supreme National Security Council chief Mohsen Rezaei to revive peace talks.

Sustained tensions over control of the Strait of Hormuz have kept the US and Iran from agreeing to an end to hostilities that have now dragged on into the eighth month.

Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said it destroyed a US drone over the strait, according to a Tasnim News Agency report on Thursday.

In a statement, the IRGC Public Relations Department said it intercepted and destroyed an advanced MQ-1 drone in the eastern Strait of Hormuz, off the coast of Sirik.

It said the IRGC's modern aerospace defense system, under the country's integrated Air Defense Network, shot down the drone.

The shooting down of the unmanned aerial vehicle marks the latest in a series of similar interceptions over the strait in recent weeks.