Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan spoke over the phone on Sunday with his Iranian counterpart Abbas Araghchi, Foreign Ministry sources said. The two top diplomats discussed the latest developments in peace talks between Iran and the United States, sources added.
Ankara is an active and major actor working for a peaceful resolution to the U.S.-Israel-Iran war. Fidan has been at the forefront of the diplomatic blitz to achieve this, along with Pakistan, a major ally of Türkiye, which hosted the last round of U.S.-Iran talks.
Iran has sent its response to a U.S. proposal aimed at ending the more than two-month war to the mediator, Pakistan, Iran's IRNA news agency said Sunday.
According to Iran's proposal, the current phase of negotiations will focus exclusively on the cessation of hostilities in the region, a source familiar with the matter told IRNA.
Sources in both camps have told Reuters the latest peace efforts are aimed at a temporary memorandum of understanding to halt the war and allow traffic through the Strait of Hormuz while they discuss a fuller deal, which would have to address intractable disputes such as Iran's nuclear program.
Talks with the United States aim to defend Iran's rights, "not surrender," Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said Sunday.
"If there is any talk of dialogue or negotiation, it does not mean surrender or backing down, but rather the goal is to secure the rights of the Iranian nation and powerfully defend national interests," Pezeshkian said in a statement carried by IRNA.
Iran "will never bow before the enemy," he vowed during a meeting of the task force for reconstruction of damage caused during the U.S.-Israeli war.
Regional tensions have escalated since the U.S. and Israel launched strikes against Iran on Feb. 28, triggering retaliation from Tehran against Israel as well as U.S. allies in the Gulf, along with the closure of the Strait of Hormuz.
A cease-fire took effect on April 8 through Pakistani mediation, but talks in Islamabad failed to produce a lasting agreement. The truce was later extended by U.S. President Donald Trump without a set deadline, paving the way for diplomacy toward a permanent solution to the war.
