Tehran (AFP) – The United States had yet to publicly respond on Saturday after Iran offered a plan to reopen the strategic Strait of Hormuz, though reports indicated that President Donald Trump had rejected the proposal. The waterway, key to the world’s oil supply, is central to the conflict between the US and Iran, which is at a stalemate after nearly seven months, though new mediation efforts took place this week.
Iranian state media reported on Saturday that President Masoud Pezeshkian was on his way back to Tehran after attending the UN General Assembly in New York. There, he met with UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, according to the presidency, and said: “Iran has not walked away from the negotiating table, but given past experiences, it no longer trusts the United States.” Earlier in the week, Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi held talks with Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff and previously set out conditions for ending the war and reopening the vital shipping channel.
“Iran has conveyed to the United States, through Qatar, a concrete seven-day plan. If the necessary conditions are met, the strait can be reopened, and normal maritime passage restored within seven days,” Araghchi said at the UN. “The choice now rests with the United States. Iran does not accept coercion, threats or intimidation, and Iran will not surrender its sovereign rights under pressure,” he added. However, within hours of his comments, The Wall Street Journal reported that Trump had rejected the proposal, citing US officials familiar with the matter. The report noted that the 80-year-old president was skeptical that Tehran would meet his demands and added he sees a renewed bombing campaign as likely. Trump also posted an image to his Truth Social platform of a map showing the Strait of Hormuz circled and labeled “Trump Strait”.
Hossein Mohebi, a spokesman for Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, was quoted by Tasnim news agency as saying: “We will not cease punishing the US until Iran’s seven conditions are met.” Pezeshkian said Iran’s supreme leader Mojtaba Khamenei backed the new plan. “Coordination with the leader of the revolution (the supreme leader)…has been carried out,” he told broadcaster CBS, according to excerpts released by Iranian state media.
Iran’s plan calls for a cessation of all hostilities in the Middle East, including in Lebanon, according to Araghchi. He said the conditions were the same as those laid out in a memorandum of understanding signed with the US earlier this year. It notably calls for the release of frozen Iranian assets estimated to be worth at least $12 billion, as well as the lifting of sanctions on Iranian oil and an end to the US naval blockade of Iran. On the seventh day of the truce, Iran would reopen Hormuz. Pezeshkian told CBS that the “process will begin from the very day they accept it.”
“We had previously reached an agreement based on the MOU that was signed in Pakistan…if the United States agrees to proceed in that way, everything will return to the way it was before,” he added. Mohebi told AFP in an exclusive interview on Tuesday that ending hostilities in Yemen was also among Tehran’s demands. Washington and Tehran signed a memorandum of understanding in June that aimed to end the war, reopen the strait, and launch talks on Iran’s nuclear program.
But the deal broke down shortly afterward when Iran fired on commercial ships in Hormuz that it accused of deviating from its approved route through the waterway. Iran requires ships to obtain authorization before passage, citing security and sovereignty reasons. Ships that refuse to comply are regularly targeted, while the United States sporadically bombs Iranian coastal areas in retaliation.
© 2024 AFP
