A belligerent Iran has sparked a tweak in backchannel diplomacy to end the Middle East deadlock.
The US is reportedly tapping new mediators as it seeks to deploy all steps to make Iran fall in line and initiate a compromise. The Associated Press reported that the Trump administration is reaching out to new actors whom it sees as useful players who could sway Tehran to tone down its rigid stance.
The move comes as traditional mediators have failed to initiate a compromise or extract some assurances from Iran.
The AP report said talks between Iran and Oman, as well as between Iran and Pakistan, Turkey and Qatar, are on, but the US is not happy with the pace of these negotiations.
This has prompted the US to include interlocutors in Europe.
Earlier this week Secretary of State Marco Rubio met foreign minister of Austria, Beate Meinl-Reisinger, and held a call with the foreign minister of Greece on Wednesday. The US has not acknowledged that these discussions had anything to do with the Middle East conflict resolution talks. This is likely because it wants to give some leeway to the mediators to persuade Iran to return to the negotiating table.
The US however has acknowledged that discussions with these countries did take place but did not specify what the topic of talks were.
However, after their talks with Rubio, these diplomats reportedly spoke with Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi on Thursday.
It is not known what emerged from the talks, but the development comes as the deadlock between the warring nations persist over the control of the contentious Strait of Hormuz. There is no clarity on US President Donald Trump's line of thinking on the new mediators also.
The crucial oil shipping corridor has been effectively shut by Iran, while President Trump has enforced a naval blockade of the waterway.
The latest change of tact is seen as a desperate push to break the diplomatic logjam between the US and Iran, though it is not clear how far these countries have been able to sway Tehran on the matter.
The closure of the Strait has resulted in oil prices rising to as high as $120 a barrel at ojne point of time.
Though prices cooled after a ceasefire, after the renewed strikes, it is edging up again.
The deadlock over the Strait has stoked inflationary concerns across the globe.
"Everyone is just urging both sides to stop this reckless game of chicken," Ali Vaez, Iran project director at the International Crisis Group, was quoted as saying in the AP report.
The report said the latest mediatory approach shows that the effectiveness of the closure of the Strait of Hormuz has forced many neutral countries to take up efforts to initiate a lasting solution to the crisis.
But skeptics are also voicing indifference. Mona Yacoubian, director of the Middle East Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, has said efforts by Greece, Austria or any other non-mediating country could prove to be futile.
"While the calls to both sides may entail encouraging both Iran and the U.S. back to the negotiating table, such efforts fall short of mediation, which is a very complex endeavor and requires trust to be built by the mediator with both sides," Yacoubian said.
The US State Department said on Friday that it could not comment on the timing of calls by other countries' foreign ministers.
But the AP report quoted European diplomatic sources as saying the timing of the calls was not an accident.
