spoke of "positive momentum" towards ending their eight-month war. Qatar and Pakistan are leading diplomatic efforts to resolve the Middle East war, which broke out with US-Israeli strikes that killed Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in late February. Tehran has said it could reopen Hormuz, the vital global energy conduit that it has blockaded since the start of the conflict, within two days if Washington meets a raft of conditions. "The conflict with Iran will not be resolved through military means, nor by intensifying sanctions", Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi told Iran's IRNA news agency. "The only solution is to adopt a language of respect, engage in diplomacy, and address Iran's demands and conditions -- which were outlined in the two-day proposal and remain on the table." Iran's conditions have included ending the war on all fronts, unfreezing Iranian assets, lifting oil sanctions and ending the US counter-blockade of Iranian ports. On Monday Trump said there was momentum towards ending the conflict after meeting Qatar's prime minister at the White House. Washington has in recent days appeared to taper down threats of renewed strikes on the Islamic republic after Trump's Republican Party last week lost midterm elections, in part due to the war. In a post on social media, Trump reiterated that the US was "locked and loaded" but said further strikes were "quite unlikely" given that key US allies in the Gulf "would prefer the status quo". "We are seeing positive momentum toward an end to this Conflict, and will ensure that America's interests are at all times protected", Trump wrote. (Bssnews)