Discussions’ focus shifted towards regional security after the start of Israel’s war in Gaza
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Indirect talks between the US and Iran have attempted to build on an unannounced truce in Iraq to expand it across conflict-hit areas of the Middle East, sources have told media.
Although Washington has not commented on the latest discussions, Iranian state media confirmed the most recent rounds of indirect talks, saying they focused on negotiations for removing sanctions against Iran – thought to be a major motivation for Tehran’s increased initiative to mitigate regional conflict.
“There is a clear American push … for the Iranians to maintain the relative restraint they are exercising on their part, especially on the Iraqi front, where an unofficial truce has continued for more than a month,” one of the sources said of the diplomatic efforts.
The US this month renewed a sanctions waiver that grants Iran access to $10 billion in previously escrowed funds. The waiver, which allows Tehran to use electricity revenue from Iraq for budgetary support and debt repayment, comes four months after a similar extension.
The waiver appears to be one of the indications that US President Joe Biden’s administration “is showing the extent of its willingness to win the Iranians in this sensitive period of war in Gaza, and with the drums of electoral war beginning to beat in the United States”, a Lebanese source close to the Iran-allied Hezbollah group told media.
“Biden does not seem ready for a major adventure that might eat away more of his political capital,” added the source.
For years, the US and Iran held discussions through mediators in Oman, Geneva and other cities regarding Tehran’s controversial nuclear ambitions, ballistic missile programme and regional areas of influence.
But talks between the two countries shifted towards maintaining regional security and finding ways to prevent a full-scale war in the Middle East following Hamas’s attack on October 7, which sparked Israel’s war in Gaza and led to the mobilisation of Iran-allied militant groups across the region in support of the Palestinian militant group.
Militant groups in Iraq and Syria have attacked US troops as part of a co-ordinated front since the outbreak of the war in Gaza – where health authorities say more than 31,800 people have been killed by Israeli fire – demanding an immediate ceasefire in the Palestinian territory run by their ally Hamas.
However, the last strike by those militias was on February 4. The cessation of attacks against US forces was part of an “unannounced truce” that included Tehran and the Iraqi government, sources in Beirut and Baghdad told media this month.
The de-escalation followed a January attack that killed three US soldiers at the Jordanian-Syrian border. It was attributed by Washington to the Islamic Resistance in Iraq, an Iran-backed group of militias that includes Kataib Hezbollah.
A senior Iranian commander then travelled to Baghdad and met militants to urge an immediate detente. Shortly after the meeting, Kataib Hezbollah announced it was suspending military operations against US forces in Syria and Iraq to prevent “any embarrassment” to the government in Baghdad.
“It’s hard not to imagine the Americans [being] part of it,” a source in Beirut close to the Iranian-backed anti-Israel front said at the time.
In Lebanon, where Iran’s powerful ally Hezbollah is waging a contained war of attrition against neighbouring Israel, the US has dedicated significant efforts to achieving a truce and preventing a bigger conflict. Such a war would have devastating consequences for Lebanon and Israel, possibly igniting wider regional confrontation.
Hezbollah has consistently rebuffed US-brokered attempts to call a truce before a ceasefire in Gaza is established.
But the militant group has also shown little interest in dragging itself into a major war with Israel and has attempted to prevent further escalation. For its part, Israel has carried out attacks deeper inside Lebanon in recent weeks, seeking to achieve its objective of pushing Hezbollah from the south using a tactic Israeli officials have called “diplomacy or force”.
Despite Hezbollah’s public rebuffs, sources in Beirut close to diplomatic efforts told media an arrangement to start negotiations to end the border conflict between Lebanon and Israel was progressing despite fears of a large-scale war with Hezbollah.
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