Iran International recorded Saturday that Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, on the sidelines of President Masoud Pezeshkian's news conference, said Iran and Oman were "very close" to a new Hormuz shipping route. [1] He said Tehran no longer accepts the old Traffic Separation Scheme. Reopen, he said, still depended on other conditions, including U.S. compensation for violations of the Islamabad memorandum.

The Saturday page names Oman as the counterpart. It does not name Oman as a victim-blamer, and it does not name Iran as the shooter. [1] The paper's Saturday lead already carried the published ask-list. This brief is the Muscat file as Iran International printed it: close, temporary, unassigned.

A close talk without a named attacker is the diplomatic product. Saturday's hull still wants a different sentence.

Araghchi said establishing a permanent new route involved extensive technical and legal complexities, which is why the two sides were discussing a temporary lane first. [1] "The reopening of the Strait of Hormuz is subject to other conditions, including the US compensating for violations of the Islamabad memorandum," he said. Iran International's Saturday file is that sentence. It is not a named attacker and not a named victim-blamer.

Close, temporary, unassigned. That is the Muscat file as printed. [1]

-- YOSEF STERN, Jerusalem