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Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said on Sunday that the mediators working to broker a peace deal between Iran and the United States have stopped traveling since the US midterm elections, which he said had caused a “shock.”
He added that it will take time for the atmosphere to improve.
“We now have to see how long it will take for them to digest these results, in order to determine how we are going to move forward,” Araghchi told state television.
The elections brought heavy losses for the Republican Party of US President Donald Trump.
Araghchi said there had been no mediator travel for the past few days and blamed the pause on the reaction to the American vote. He said it would “take some time before the atmosphere is favourable for the resumption of mediator travel,” and he urged patience.
Regional powers including Qatar and Pakistan have spent months trying to secure a definitive end to the war that the United States and Israel launched in late February. They have not succeeded so far.
Araghchi also addressed Washington directly on X, writing: “American voters have made their choice. Time for the White House to make its own.”
He urged the US to accept Iran’s previously stated demands or “choose war, and see our alert and battle-hardened warriors rain down hell.”
Large-scale fighting has largely subsided, but the two sides remain locked in a standoff at sea.
Iran continues its efforts to blockade the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow waterway at the mouth of the Persian Gulf and a vital artery for global energy supplies. The US Navy maintains its own counterblockade of Iranian ports.
In September, Iran proposed a seven-day plan to reopen the strait. Its demands included ending the war on all fronts, unfreezing Iranian assets, lifting oil sanctions and ending the counterblockade of its ports.
Tehran later proposed carrying out the reopening in just two days. Araghchi repeated that offer in his post on Sunday.
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