Mediators scramble to avert US-Iran fighting after Trump's midterm restraint fades
Tehran has little incentive to make concessions that the Trump administration could tout as a win before next week’s election.
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WASHINGTON — Regional mediators are mounting a last-ditch effort to head off another round of fighting between Iran and the United States after next week’s midterm elections ease President Donald Trump’s political constraints to escalate the war.
In a bid to revive talks, Qatari mediators on Sunday delivered a letter from Vice President JD Vance to Iranian Security Council chief Gen. Mohsen Rezaei, calling for a resumption of negotiations between the two sides.
Vance led a US delegation in marathon, face-to-face negotiations with Iranian officials in Islamabad in April. More recent discussions involving US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, held on the sidelines of last month’s United Nations summit in New York, were conducted indirectly through Qatari mediators.
