Qatar Presents Iran With Seven-Day Plan to End War; Iranian Official Dismisses It

Qatari mediators gave Iran a proposal on Sunday to end the war with the United States and Israel, and a senior Iranian official involved in the talks told Reuters on Wednesday that it contained unacceptable ideas and was not an offer. Reuters, citing an official briefed on the talks who was not from Iran, reported that the plan set a seven-day timeline addressing both Tehran's and Washington's concerns. It included daily confidence-building steps by each side and third-party observers as guarantors, and could start as early as next week. As of Wednesday afternoon Tehran had not formally rejected it. The Wall Street Journal reported that the U.S. told Gulf partners to prepare for a brief, intense campaign against Iran after the Nov. 3 midterms, and that another Patriot battery was being sent from Texas. Officials said an extra carrier strike group and a Marine unit will join about 20 warships in the region. Separately, the Houthis urged people at Aden airport in Yemen to evacuate, claiming a Saudi cargo plane was carrying weapons.

Left-leaning CBS News headlines the Qatari proposal but spends its opening on the Wall Street Journal's account of U.S. military preparations, the Patriot shipment, troop moves and the Houthi spokesman's Aden warning. It also reports an Iranian official's denial that Qatar presented a new peace proposal. Right-leaning Breitbart instead leads with the plan's terms, the unnamed Reuters source, and the fact that Tehran had not formally rejected it. It adds the Saudi, Turkish and Pakistani visit to Tehran and Saudi pressure on Iran over Houthi attacks. Both sides cite Reuters or the Journal and note the Iranian dismissal, but CBS stresses Iran's denial and U.S. war readiness, while Breitbart stresses the proposal's contents and regional diplomacy. The American Conservative, an alternative outlet, adds Brent crude at $114 and U.S. fuel prices.