Reported by NPR World
Qatar has been leading intense mediation efforts over the past 72 hours to prevent a new round of possible U.S. attacks on Iran after Tuesday's midterm elections. The uncertainty has the entire Gulf region on edge.
SACHA PFEIFFER, HOST: Meanwhile, the U.S. and Israel are planning for possible strikes on Iran after Tuesday's midterms, and Qatar has been leading intense mediation efforts over the past 72 hours to try to prevent that from happening. The uncertainty of what comes next has the entire Gulf region on edge. NPR's international correspondent Aya Batrawy is in Bahrain, and she's with us to talk about all this. Hi, Aya. AYA BATRAWY, BYLINE: Hey, Sacha. PFEIFFER: To start us off, a two-part question - what do these mediation efforts look like, and what has President Trump said, if anything, about how likely another attack on Iran is? BATRAWY: All right. So Qatar has been really tight-lipped about what's been going on. They did have some mediators visiting Tehran, and also Iran had a delegation in Doha, Qatar - all of this over the past 72 hours. But Iran's foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, today, was quoted in Iranian state media saying there's still no definitive conclusion to these mediation efforts. But he said there is talk of a two-day plan. That would include basically the Iranians not attacking ships in the Strait of Hormuz to allow for direct talks to begin again between Washington and Tehran. And Trump was asked about the possibility of restarting the war with Iran. He was at a Halloween party at Mar-a-Lago, and he said, we're not in that much of a hurry. Have a listen. (SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING) PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: We've knocked out almost every piece of military equipment there. We've knocked out a lot of their manufacturing capabilities. We've knocked out the nuclear. We've knocked out their nuclear. We still have to take care of, I would say, one or two sites, but we can do that in 10 minutes. BATRAWY: So as you heard there, President Trump isn't really saying what he might do after…