US Congress Urged to Halt Iran War as Tehran Awaits Roadmap Response

New York, United States: Iran's foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, stepped away from a microphone outside the United Nations Security Council on Friday having placed the end of a seven-month war squarely in Washington's hands. Tehran has formally submitted a seven-day roadmap to end hostilities with the United States and is now waiting for a reply.

The plan, conveyed to Washington through Qatar, sets out a sequence in which an American acceptance would start the clock immediately. Araghchi told reporters that the initial steps would take four to five days, the Strait of Hormuz would reopen on the sixth day, and "on day seven, the talks with the US will be started for the final deal on mutually agreed subjects", a reference to Iran's nuclear programme.

"The seven-day timeline will start as soon as the United States accepts this plan," he said. "The choice now rests with the United States."

The offer carries concrete conditions. Under the plan, Washington would lift its naval blockade of Iranian ports, waive sanctions on Iranian oil sales, release an estimated $12bn in frozen Iranian assets and observe a ceasefire covering the region, including Lebanon and Yemen. In return, Tehran would reopen the Strait of Hormuz, the waterway through which a fifth of the world's traded oil and gas passed before the war and which has become Iran's main point of leverage.

"Iran does not accept coercion, threats or intimidation, and Iran will not surrender its sovereign rights under pressure," Araghchi said. "I can tell you if there is seriousness on the US side to come to a deal and reopen the Strait of Hormuz, everything is now prepared."

The proposal closely mirrors a memorandum of understanding signed between Tehran and Washington on 17 June after Qatari and Pakistani mediation. That agreement set a 60-day window for talks but collapsed within weeks. Technical and vague terms over control of shipping through Hormuz led to disputes, as Iran began firing on vessels it accused of ignoring its authorisation rules, prompting President Donald Trump to declare the deal "over" in July. The United States has since sporadically struck Iranian territory and coastal areas in response.

Diplomatic channels nonetheless remain open. Araghchi met Trump's envoy, Steve Witkoff, on Tuesday on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly. Witkoff described the meeting as "lengthy" and said he hoped the talks would "prove constructive and promising". Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian told a US broadcaster this week that ending the war was now up to Washington. "It's America that must choose whether it wants to end this or not," he said. A White House official said the administration was having "positive and constructive discussions through the mediators".

Analysts remain sceptical. Cyrus Schayegh of the Geneva Graduate Institute said "basically nothing has really changed", arguing that Iran wants to keep the leverage it gained during the war, while Washington resists returning to the June framework. It appears unlikely the new deal will make major progress before the US midterm elections in November, though Araghchi said it "would be better" to reach one beforehand. Qatar's foreign minister spoke with Pezeshkian on Friday about de-escalation and the conditions for renewed dialogue.

The diplomacy is unfolding against a parallel argument in the United States about who actually decides on war. An open letter addressed to members of Congress and circulated as the UN meetings took place urges lawmakers to reassert a constitutional power the framers deliberately withheld from a king. It describes the president as bound by nothing, not law, the Constitution, the UN Charter, or public opinion at home and abroad, and argues that Republican members of Congress have "abdicated their constitutional responsibilities", forsaking their constituents for campaign money from pro-Israel groups and the military-industrial complex.

The letter recalls Trump's remarks to world leaders at the UN, in which he declared that "I have a big decision to make", whether to negotiate a deal with Iran or instead to "annihilate the Islamic Republic" and drive Iran "into hell with no chance of survival". It notes that the president posed the choice as his personal decision and said he gives "absolutely no credence" to the coming midterm elections in deciding Iran's fate.

The letter also cites an earlier answer from the president when asked whether he has any limits on his power: "Yeah, there is one thing. My own morality. My own mind. It's the only thing that can stop me."

Invoking the Declaration of Independence, the letter says the founders indicted King George III for having "affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power", and argues that the same complaint now applies at home. It points to Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution, which assigns to Congress, not the president, the sole power to declare war, a choice the framers made deliberately to reject the power of a king to take the nation to war.

The letter frames the moment as a test of whether Congress will reclaim that power or allow the survival of a whole civilisation to rest in one person's hands. With Tehran publicly waiting for an answer and a seven-day clock that has not yet started, the pressure now sits with Washington's negotiators and its legislature alike, as the window Araghchi says is prepared narrows towards a decision neither capital claims to want.