Iran FM Says Not Responded to US Plan, ‘No Negotiations’

09 September 2025, Egypt, Cairo: Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi attends a joint press conference in Cairo. (dpa)
09 September 2025, Egypt, Cairo: Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi attends a joint press conference in Cairo. (dpa)
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Iran FM Says Not Responded to US Plan, ‘No Negotiations’

09 September 2025, Egypt, Cairo: Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi attends a joint press conference in Cairo. (dpa)
09 September 2025, Egypt, Cairo: Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi attends a joint press conference in Cairo. (dpa)

Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said there were no negotiations with the United States and that Tehran had not responded to a reported 15-point proposal from Washington to end the war.

"We receive messages from the American side, some direct and some through our friends in the region, and whenever necessary we respond to these messages," Araghchi said in an interview with Al Jazeera aired on Wednesday and dubbed into Arabic from Persian.

"There are no grounds for negotiations," he said, adding however that some messages had been exchanged directly with US special envoy Steve Witkoff.

Iran has been at war with the United States and Israel since February 28, when strikes killed the country's supreme leader and triggered a conflict that has spread across the region.

Diplomatic efforts involving Türkiye, Egypt and Pakistan have recently been launched to try to end the war.

Last week, two senior Pakistani officials said Islamabad had conveyed to Iran a 15-point plan containing US proposals.

Iranian media had reported that Tehran offered a five-point counterproposal calling for an end to what it described as "aggression" and for guarantees that neither the United States nor Israel would resume hostilities.

Araghchi, however, said Tehran "has not offered anything in response" to the US plan and that reported Iranian responses were "merely guesses" from a media outlet.

The war broke out in the middle of negotiations between Iran and the United States over Tehran's nuclear program.

The conflict echoes a 12-day war in June last year, when Israel launched strikes days before a planned round of talks between Tehran and Washington. The United States later joined those attacks, targeting Iranian nuclear facilities.

Araghchi said there was "zero" trust in the United States and that Iran would not accept a ceasefire, instead calling for a "complete end to the war" and reparations.

Since the start of the conflict, now in its second month, Iran has allowed only a trickle of ships to pass through the strategic Strait of Hormuz, disrupting roughly 20 percent of global oil flows.

Iran says the strait is closed to what it describes as "enemy" shipping.

In recent days, Iranian officials have said the US may be plotting a ground attack with the arrival in the region of the USS Tripoli, an amphibious assault ship carrying around 3,500 Marines and sailors.

Araghchi warned that "we are waiting for them... they will incur heavy losses".



Iran Hangs Man Accused of Passing info to CIA, Mossad

The Iranian flag waves in front of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) headquarters, before the beginning of a board of governors meeting, amid the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak in Vienna, Austria, March 1, 2021. (Reuters)
The Iranian flag waves in front of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) headquarters, before the beginning of a board of governors meeting, amid the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak in Vienna, Austria, March 1, 2021. (Reuters)
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Iran Hangs Man Accused of Passing info to CIA, Mossad

The Iranian flag waves in front of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) headquarters, before the beginning of a board of governors meeting, amid the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak in Vienna, Austria, March 1, 2021. (Reuters)
The Iranian flag waves in front of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) headquarters, before the beginning of a board of governors meeting, amid the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak in Vienna, Austria, March 1, 2021. (Reuters)

Iran said Monday it had hanged a man convicted of spying for Israel and the United States, the latest in a wave of executions during the war with the two foes.

"Erfan Shakourzadeh... was hanged for collaborating with the US intelligence service and the Mossad spy service," the judiciary's Mizan Online website said.

It did not specify when he was executed or when he was arrested, but said he worked at one of Iran's "scientific organizations active in the satellite field".

Iran has long faced Western accusations that its satellite program is being used to advance ballistic missile capabilities, reported AFP.

Mizan said Shakourzadeh had "knowingly and willingly" passed classified information to the CIA and Mossad.

Iran is the world's second-most prolific executioner, according to rights groups.

Norway-based group Iran Human Rights says the Iranian republic executed at least 1,500 people last year, one of the highest numbers worldwide.

Iran has been at war with Israel and the United States since late February, with a ceasefire in place since April 8.

Since the start of the conflict, Iran has ramped up executions, particularly in cases involving alleged espionage or security-related charges.

Last Monday, Tehran executed three men convicted of involvement in anti-government protests that rocked the country in December and January.


Australia to Quarantine Six People from Hantavirus Ship

Passengers are disembarked from the hantavirus-stricken cruise ship MV Hondius at the port of Granadilla in Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain, Sunday, May 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)
Passengers are disembarked from the hantavirus-stricken cruise ship MV Hondius at the port of Granadilla in Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain, Sunday, May 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)
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Australia to Quarantine Six People from Hantavirus Ship

Passengers are disembarked from the hantavirus-stricken cruise ship MV Hondius at the port of Granadilla in Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain, Sunday, May 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)
Passengers are disembarked from the hantavirus-stricken cruise ship MV Hondius at the port of Granadilla in Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain, Sunday, May 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)

Australia will place six people from a cruise ship struck with the rat-borne hantavirus in a purpose-built quarantine facility north of Perth for at least three weeks, the government said Monday.

The passengers -- four Australian citizens, one permanent resident in Australia and a New Zealander -- are to be kept at Western Australia's 500-bed Bullsbrook center, originally built for the Covid-19 pandemic, said AFP.

Repatriation flights from Tenerife in Spain's Canary Islands are still being finalized in a "complex" operation, Health Minister Mark Butler told a news conference.

Australia will list the hantavirus disease under the country's biosecurity legislation, enabling the government to make an order placing the passengers in quarantine, he said.

The six passengers -- none of whom have shown hantavirus symptoms -- will land at an airforce base by the quarantine facility, the minister said.

"Those six people will be transferred immediately to that quarantine facility directly next door to the RAAF base," Butler said.

Butler said the incubation period for the virus was 42 days, and arrangements after the initial three weeks' quarantine had yet to be decided.

Some other countries were only quarantining people from the ship for a few days before telling them to isolate at home, the minister said.

But Australia was implementing a "stronger response" because the long flight from Tenerife in a relatively small plane posed a greater risk of transmission.


Kallas: EU Expected to Agree Long-stalled Sanctions on Israeli Settlers

A view of the new Jewish settlers’ outpost erected on the outskirts of the village of Abu Falah, northeast of Ramallah in the Israeli-occupied West Bank on March 12, 2026. (Photo by Zain JAAFAR / AFP)
A view of the new Jewish settlers’ outpost erected on the outskirts of the village of Abu Falah, northeast of Ramallah in the Israeli-occupied West Bank on March 12, 2026. (Photo by Zain JAAFAR / AFP)
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Kallas: EU Expected to Agree Long-stalled Sanctions on Israeli Settlers

A view of the new Jewish settlers’ outpost erected on the outskirts of the village of Abu Falah, northeast of Ramallah in the Israeli-occupied West Bank on March 12, 2026. (Photo by Zain JAAFAR / AFP)
A view of the new Jewish settlers’ outpost erected on the outskirts of the village of Abu Falah, northeast of Ramallah in the Israeli-occupied West Bank on March 12, 2026. (Photo by Zain JAAFAR / AFP)

The European Union was expected Monday to agree new sanctions on Israeli settlers over violence against Palestinians, the bloc's top diplomat said, as a change of government in Hungary ends months of blockage.

"I expect political agreement on the sanctions on violent settlers, hopefully we will get there," EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said ahead of a meeting of the bloc's foreign ministers.

The move in response to rising violence and settlement expansion in the Israeli-occupied West Bank had been stalled by former Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orban.

But nationalist leader and Israel ally's ouster by rival Peter Magyar now appears to have paved the way for the veto to be lifted.

EU officials said seven settlers or settler organizations were set to be blacklisted. The bloc was also set to sanction representatives from Palestinian militant group Hamas.

The occupied West Bank has been gripped by almost daily violence since the start of the Gaza war in October 2023, involving both Israeli troops and settlers.

There has been a surge in deadly attacks by Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank since the start of the Iran war on February 28, Palestinian officials and the United Nations have said.

While the EU is moving ahead with the sanctions on Israeli settlers, there remains no consensus among the bloc's member states to take further steps against Israel such as curbing trade ties.