Iran terms Qatari offer unacceptable

New proposal sets out confidence-building measures

TEHRAN:

Qatari mediators have presented Iran with a new draft deal to end the war with the US and Israel, an official briefed on the negotiations said, but a senior Iranian official said Doha had only put forward unacceptable ideas that did not amount to an offer.

The official briefed on the negotiations, who is not from Iran, said a new draft peace proposal for the eight-month-old conflict was presented on Sunday and was being considered by Tehran, with a response expected by the end of the week.

Qatar, along with Pakistan, has led mediation to end the war, which has disrupted global shipping and oil supplies and recently spread to Saudi Arabia and Yemen.

The proposal presented by Qatar sets a seven-day timeline addressing both Tehran's and Washington's concerns, laying out daily confidence-building steps that each side must take, the official briefed on the negotiations said.

The timeline could begin early next week and several countries would act as guarantors of the deal, the official added. Shortly afterwards, a senior Iranian official involved in the talks said Qatar had presented only "unacceptable ideas and not an offer", and that Tehran's policy on showing no flexibility over the nuclear issue remained unchanged.

Washington wants Iran's decades-long nuclear programme to be part of negotiations to end the war from the outset, while Iran says its conditions - which include an end to the US blockade of Iranian ports and the lifting of sanctions on Iranian oil exports - must be met first. Iran rejects Western concerns that its nuclear programme is military in nature.