LONDON / TEHRAN — A multipronged peace deal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz within four days of sanctions being lifted and for the Houthis to withdraw substantial forces inside Yemen is at the heart of Gulf states' plans to avert what they regard as a disastrous renewal of war between Iran and the US, The Guardian reported on Wednesday, October 28. The US is aware of the talks' progress, the newspaper said, but is holding out for a concession that European powers suggest could involve Iran allowing UN weapons inspectors back into the country.
The British foreign secretary, Ed Miliband, urged the Iranians to agree to readmit the UN weapons inspectors when he met the Iranian foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, in New York, but so far Iran has refused, saying it will only hold talks in principle on its nuclear programme, The Guardian reported. European diplomats believe allowing weapons inspectors to re-enter Iran and visit its bombed nuclear sites is a minimum requirement for a breakthrough with US President Donald Trump.
Iran, for its part, remains focused on the guarantees of sanctions relief it would receive in return for reopening the strait. Dr Ali Bagheri, the deputy secretary of Iran's national security council, said Iran was willing to reduce its proposal that the strait reopen seven days after economic sanctions are lifted to four days, The Guardian reported. That flexibility was also reported earlier from Tehran: Sina Finance, citing Iranian state television, said on October 26 that Bagheri Kani told Saudi, Turkish and Pakistani officials that Iran could accept a five- or four-day period if its conditions were met, and that the parties were discussing the time and place of the next round of talks.
In a further sign of flexibility, Iran is starting to acknowledge it has a mediating role in the parallel conflict in Yemen. Iran's secretary of the supreme national security council, Mohsen Rezaei, met the Houthis' ambassador to Iran, Ibrahim al-Dulaimi, on Tuesday, The Guardian reported. Tasnim, via Atlas Wire Media, reported the same meeting and said Rezaei briefed the Yemeni ambassador on the objectives of the recent four-nation meeting in Tehran, saying it was held to establish indigenous security arrangements across the region and address foreign forces and their interference. The Guardian said Iran backs the Houthis and has the power to influence them, including devising proposals that stop short of a Houthi military victory; in return, the Houthis are demanding that Saudi Arabia lift what it regards as a naval and air blockade on Houthi-held territory.
The Rezaei meeting took place 24 hours after a high-level delegation from Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Pakistan travelled to Tehran to discuss Saudi terms for ending the Yemen conflict as well as a longer-term security architecture for the region, The Guardian reported. Bloomberg, via Rigzone, likewise reported that senior officials from Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Turkey travelled to Tehran for discussions with the Iranian government on Monday, and that Iran said it was flexible on a proposal to reopen Hormuz in exchange for the lifting of a US blockade in seven days.
Source: Bloomberg via Rigzone, Oct 27, 2026 - Oil Slips as Iran Diplomacy Picks Up
At the Tehran meeting, Iran successfully prevented discussion of its nuclear programme and instead ensured the focus was a broader discussion about a long-term regional security vision that would include the Gulf states and Iran and see the US presence in the Middle East reduced or ended, The Guardian reported. A new non-aggression pact in which Iran is no longer ostracised by the rest of the Gulf, as it has been since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, would meet Iran's highest strategic goal, the newspaper said, and an agreed commitment to that goal by six Gulf states might make it easier for Iran to accept difficult concessions on its nuclear programme.
The Strait of Hormuz is the energy chokepoint whose disruption has pushed oil prices up and put Gulf shipping, flights and jobs on edge — including for the lakhs of Indian and Punjabi workers who live and work across the Gulf states. A deal that reopens the strait and pulls Houthi forces back in Yemen would ease that pressure; a renewed US-Iran war would do the opposite. For now this remains a plan under negotiation — no agreement has been announced or signed.
One of the key advocates of the inclusive security plan, Oman's foreign minister, Badr Albusaidi, said he believed the US administration understood this was the direction the region is heading. "I think if Iran is fully re-engaged in this idea of having all of us, eight countries at peace with the rest of the world, the economic potential is going to be enormous for all of us in the region and those outside the region who choose to take part in this development," he said, in remarks reported by The Guardian. At a televised event in Iran this week, Araghchi underlined the importance of a new postwar security pact, saying: "Recently, there has been talk of a new war but I am already thinking about the postwar period. Whether there is war or not, our policies remain the same."