Trump Rejects Iran’s Plan to Reopen Strait of Hormuz in Seven Days
US President Donald Trump has rejected a proposal from Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz within seven days, deepening uncertainty over efforts to end the ongoing conflict between Washington and Tehran. Trump dismissed the plan on Saturday as he departed the White House, telling reporters the terms were unacceptable, though he offered little further explanation at the time.
The proposal was unveiled Friday by Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York. Under the plan, Iran would reopen the strait, a waterway critical to global oil supplies, and resume nuclear negotiations within a week, provided the United States lifted its naval blockade on Iranian ports, waived sanctions on Iranian oil sales, and agreed to a ceasefire that would also extend to Lebanon. Araghchi said the clock on the seven-day timeline would begin as soon as Washington accepted the plan, framing the decision as one that now rested entirely with the US.
Trump, speaking to reporters, argued there was little urgency for the US to accept the offer, pointing to what he described as a tremendous flow of oil already passing through the strait, including 29 ships in a single recent night. He suggested Iran was pushing for a quick deal because it was losing badly in the conflict, while maintaining that the US remained open to negotiations under different terms. According to reporting from the Wall Street Journal, Trump is now said to be considering a resumption of bombing operations against Iran after the November midterm elections, having grown skeptical that Tehran would meet his conditions.
Iran, for its part, has continued to insist that diplomacy remains the only viable path to resolving the conflict. Officials in Tehran have said the current proposal mirrors a memorandum of understanding reached between the two countries in June, which briefly paused hostilities and offered Iran relief from the naval blockade in exchange for sanctions relief and frozen asset access. That earlier agreement collapsed amid disputes over ambiguous language, including disagreement over who would control the strait, and fighting resumed shortly afterward.
Iran has denied responsibility for the strait’s closure, with Araghchi arguing that the US had shut down shipping routes before Iran did, and maintaining that normal passage could resume quickly once negotiations succeed. Despite Trump’s public rejection of the latest offer, Iranian officials say they are still awaiting what they describe as a definitive US response, suggesting Tehran views the door to a deal as still open.
Analysts following the standoff say Trump’s rejection, paired with the absence of a clear alternative proposal from Washington, has left the conflict in a holding pattern that risks dragging on indefinitely. The strait, which carries close to a fifth of the world’s oil and gas shipments, has remained closed since fighting between the US, Israel, and Iran escalated in late February, disrupting global energy markets and adding pressure on all sides to find a resolution.
With no new talks scheduled and both sides holding firm on their conditions, the standoff over Hormuz appears likely to remain a central flashpoint in the broader US-Iran conflict in the weeks ahead.
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