Iran has announced Saturday that its Supreme National Security Council has submitted Tehran's conditions for ending the war with the United States via Qatar, and that it awaits the Trump White House's response.
"We are in contact with the Qatari intermediary who conveyed our conditions to Washington to end the war, and we are awaiting a response from President Trump," the supreme council's secretary Mohsen Rezaei said.
But he warned that if Washington doesn't comply, the Islamic Republic is ready for a "decisive war". The conditions, according to his summary, features--
"the end of the war on all fronts, the release of frozen assets and the end of the naval blockade."
"Iran has become convinced of the need to change its strategy towards Washington following the US withdrawal from the memorandum of understanding," Rezaei explained in words given to Al Jazeera.
He blasted US and Israeli calculations which have been on display through over six months of war as "flawed" and asserted that the conflict was ultimately instigated by Netanyahu.
"Iran knows the US military’s vulnerabilities and is more prepared than ever to counter its air strikes," Rezaei stated. He went on to claim that Iranian forces recently tested an anti-ship missile near a US aircraft carrier.
"Iran is serious about defense," the high-ranking Iranian security official continued, and "if attacked, will strike US bases and Washington's interests in the region with greater force."
Meanwhile, President Trump continues to shut down critics of his "little excursion" in the Middle East, which is increasingly an obvious quagmire from which the US is seeking to extricate itself, by saying that high fuel prices don't matter in light of the potential for Iran obtaining a nuclear weapon.
Interestingly, at the same time Iran continues to seek to demonstrate it is not bent on achieving nuclear weapons status.
However, Rezaei has also newly teased withdrawing from the nuclear non-proliferation treaty:
Iran complies with a fatwa issued by the late Ali Khamenei prohibiting the development of nuclear weapons and has not yet decided to withdraw from the Treaty on the Non·Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons.
"We still adhere to the fatwa of the late supreme leader and have not changed our nuclear doctrine, but we do not know what will happen in the future. We have not yet made a decision to withdraw from the Non·Proliferation Treaty, and this issue depends on Washington’s behavior," said Mohsen Rezaei
However, according to Rezaei, the actions of the United States and Israel allow Iran to withdraw from the treaty.
The Iranian official in the fresh remarks also addressed the escalating Saudi-Yemen war. He described that the Houthis seek a peace settlement with Saudi Arabia, and suggested a broader US-Iran deal would facilitate that.
Of course, Tehran at the same time knows that the Houthi advance along the Red Sea coast has only increased Iranian leverage over global energy - given the Yemeni rebels are now in easter shooting distance of the vital Bab Al-Mandab Strait. Iranian advisers are likely coordinating with the Shia Ansar Allah movement as it battles the Saudi coalition.