BySHIR PERETS 
Iran has indicated it is willing to shut down or suspend its nuclear program to calm a spiraling crisis with the United States, The New York Times reported on Monday.

The reported offer, part of back-channel exchanges in recent weeks, is aimed at averting a war after Washington threatened to use force if Tehran defied its demands.

The discussions have been relayed by regional intermediaries, the NYT added.

The NYT also reported that National Security Council secretary Ali Larijani recently met Vladimir Putin, conveying that Iran might again ship enriched uranium to Russia as under the 2015 deal.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov noted the topic “has long been on the agenda,” while Iran insists its program is for energy, not weapons.

Trump sends armada to region as MidEast decries war

US President Donald Trump vowed to use force if Tehran ignored his demands and announced an “armada” heading toward Iran.

“We have ships heading to Iran right now, big ones … and we have talks going on with Iran. We’ll see how it works out,” he told reporters on Monday.

Anwar Gargash, the diplomatic adviser to the UAE president, urged Tehran to reach a nuclear deal with Washington, saying the Middle East does not need another confrontation between the US and Iran at a panel in the World Governments Summit in Dubai.

“I think that the region has gone through various calamitous confrontations. I don’t think we need another one, but I would like to see direct Iranian-American negotiations leading to understandings that we don’t have these issues every other day,” he said.

Iranian officials have publicly said they remain open to talks. “We have never lost the opportunity to get the rights of the Iranian people through diplomacy,” Araghchi told his staff in a video shared on social media on Monday.

Lara Sukster Mosheyof, James Genn, and Reuters contributed to this report.