Iran on Sunday insisted that diplomacy was the only way to resolve its conflict with the United States and Israel after US President Donald Trump said he had rejected an Iranian proposal aimed at reopening the Strait of Hormuz and ending the fighting.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said Tehran had set clear conditions for reopening the strategically important waterway. “Our conditions are clear, and any move toward reopening the Strait of Hormuz is contingent on these conditions being met,” Araqchi posted on social media. “Only a negotiated solution can get them out of this deadlock.”
Iran announced the peace proposal last week at the United Nations General Assembly in New York, saying it had been transmitted to the United States through Qatari mediators. Trump said on Saturday that he had rejected the proposal, arguing that Iran was seeking an agreement because of the military and economic pressure it was facing.
“They want to make a deal to open the Hormuz Strait immediately because they’re losing so badly,” Trump told reporters at the White House.
Araqchi, however, said Iranian mediators had not formally communicated a US rejection of the proposal. “We are waiting for the mediators to convey the definitive views to us, and we will make a decision based on them,” he said. An earlier US official had described discussions with Iran through mediators as “positive and constructive”.
The United States has imposed an economic blockade on Iran as part of efforts to pressure Tehran to halt Iranian attacks on vessels in the Strait of Hormuz. Those attacks have drastically reduced shipping through the waterway, while Trump has repeatedly asserted that the United States controls the strait. The Wall Street Journal first reported that Trump had rejected Iran’s proposal, citing unnamed US officials. The report also said Trump was privately sceptical that Iran would meet his demands and had told staff that he considered a renewed bombing campaign likely after the November US midterm elections.
The conflict has disrupted oil flows through the critical shipping route and affected the global economy. Iran has also engaged its regional rival Saudi Arabia over the Strait of Hormuz, reflecting the wider regional consequences of the fighting. Araqchi said on Friday that Iran’s proposal would begin a seven-day countdown towards reopening the strait and a pause in regional fighting.
“If there is seriousness on the US side to come to a deal and reopen the Strait of Hormuz, everything is now prepared,” Araqchi told reporters at the United Nations. If Washington agreed, the parties could begin broader negotiations on “mutually agreed subjects”, potentially including Iran’s nuclear programme.
Trump has said Iran must never acquire a nuclear bomb. A senior Iranian official told Reuters that Tehran would not show flexibility over its nuclear programme even if Washington accepted the peace proposal, including over its right to enrich uranium or its refusal to ship highly enriched uranium out of the country.
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said Tehran was prepared to discuss its nuclear programme and other issues but would not accept “bullying or coercion”. “Iran is not seeking war, but will defend itself against pressure, threats and attacks,” he said, adding that Iran had already agreed that “we’re not supposed to develop nuclear weapons”.
The war began on February 28 with US and Israeli attacks and has since alternated between pauses and renewed strikes, killing thousands, weakening Iran’s conventional forces and damaging its economy. Iran and its allies have retaliated across the region, including attacks on US allies in the Gulf, while Houthi forces in Yemen have targeted Saudi interests. Yemen’s Saudi-led coalition said on Saturday that it had intercepted two ballistic missiles and two drones launched by the Houthis towards Saudi Arabia.
