Qatar Puts New Seven-Day Peace Plan to Iran to End War With US and Israel

Qatari mediators handed Iran a new draft agreement on Sunday aimed at ending the war with the United States and Israel. An official briefed on the negotiations said on Wednesday that Tehran is expected to send its response by the end of the week.

According to the official, the draft sets a seven-day timeline designed to address the concerns of both Tehran and Washington. It spells out confidence-building steps that each side would have to take on each day of that period.

The timeline could start early next week, the official said. Several countries would serve as guarantors of the arrangement.

Qatar and Pakistan have led the mediation effort. The war was launched by the United States and Israel in February, and it has disrupted global shipping and oil supplies while spilling into other parts of the Middle East.

Ahead of Sunday's meeting in Tehran, there were worries that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu could order a resumption of attacks on the Islamic Republic this week, the official said. Netanyahu is currently campaigning for another term in a general election.

Rhetoric has stayed sharp. On Friday, US President Donald Trump again threatened to strike Iran. Iranian security officials told Reuters that Tehran had drawn up detailed plans to attack undersea cables in the Gulf if the United States and Israel resumed their attacks.

This is not the first diplomatic attempt to halt the fighting. Earlier mediation helped produce an interim peace agreement in June, but that deal quickly unraveled.

Regional tensions have also been rising elsewhere. In recent weeks, Yemen's Iran-aligned Houthis have carried out repeated attacks against Saudi Arabia, the world's largest crude exporter.

With the proposed timeline possibly starting early next week, Iran's answer to the Qatari draft will show whether this latest effort can succeed where the June agreement did not.