Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Baghaei says they have held several contacts and consultations

• If Iran drags its feet in advancing diplomacy, Tehran's people and public opinion will certainly say that you chose war.

Statements of this kind sit in the standard repertoire of pre-negotiation signalling: affirming that contacts are underway while pre-positioning blame should talks stall. The domestic-facing framing, telling Tehran's own public that foot-dragging means choosing war, is a departure from the usual posture in which Iranian officials reserve the blame narrative for the counterparty, and historically that kind of inward-directed messaging has preceded either a genuine push toward the table or an effort to soften the political cost of an eventual climbdown. The diplomatic process around Iran has cycled repeatedly through phases of indirect contacts, public posturing, and third-party mediation, with each round tending to be preceded by exactly this type of contested record over who is obstructing whom. The pertinent distinction for positioning is between verified channels, sustained back-channel engagement through regional intermediaries, and rhetorical contact, which is claimed publicly to shape perceptions rather than to move terms. Precedent across comparable episodes is that crude, regional risk premia in rates and FX, and insurance and freight pricing in Gulf shipping respond to escalation signals in physical or military form, not to diplomatic talk alone. Follow-ons worth noting are whether the counterparty corroborates that consultations are live, and whether any intermediary state confirms an active channel.