Iran says it is waiting on the “definitive” response to its latest proposal on reopening the Strait of Hormuz, despite US President Donald Trump publicly rejecting the offer.
Under the plan, Iran would open the critical waterway within a week and resume nuclear talks if the US met certain conditions, including lifting a naval blockade and waiving sanctions on oil.
“We saw the first reaction from the US president, but nothing has been conveyed to us from the mediators yet,” said Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi.
He added: “Of course, the US president has also said many good things and also many contradictory things, which unfortunately we hear a lot from him. We are waiting for the definitive opinions to be conveyed to us by the mediators and we will make a decision based on that.”
Trump on Saturday rejected Iran’s latest proposal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, calling it “unacceptable.”
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After a week in which senior Iranian officials visited New York to attend the UN General Assembly and meet US officials, Trump’s comments suggested there has been no tangible diplomatic progress.
“They want to make a deal where they open the strait immediately because they’re losing so badly,” he added. “They want a make a deal, and I think that’s fine. I like making a deal too, but that deal would not be acceptable.”
On Sunday, Trump told Axios that he expects more talks with Iran to occur this week.
“They want to make a deal, but it is not the deal that I want to make,” the president said. It is what we would have maybe agreed to a year ago. They overplayed their hand.”
US Ambassador to the United Nations Mike Waltz told CNN’s Jake Tapper earlier on Sunday that Trump rejected the proposal because he does not believe Iran was negotiating in good faith, arguing that it was unacceptable that Iran was “asking for everything up front.”
“The bottom line is they were asking for everything up front with a promise that they would then talk,” Waltz said on “State of the Union.”
Waltz later told NBC’s “Meet the Press” that “it’s kind of common sense” Trump doesn’t have a lot of confidence in the Iranian proposal. He dismissed the proposal as “a pretty cynical attempt to put something on the table that they knew was unacceptable.”
Waltz said that a consistent issue for the US has been a lack of clarity on whether Iranian representatives at the negotiating table actually represent Iran’s Supreme Leader, Mojtaba Khamenei.
“I’m not going to negotiate in public for the president, but we have to know number one that people coming to the table can actually speak for the Ayatollah, and that has been a consistent issue that have frustrated our negotiators. Who’s calling the shots in Iran right now? Is it the IRGC? Is it the president? Is it the foreign minister?” Waltz said.
‘We are not in a rush’
Meanwhile, the Iranian foreign minister has not elaborated on the exact conditions for the proposal but said they were “nothing more” than what was included in the US-Iran Memorandum of Understanding, which was signed in June but collapsed shortly after amid renewed fighting.
“If the necessary conditions are met, the strait can be reopened, a normal maritime passage restored within seven days. The choice now rests with the United States,” Araghchi told reporters during a visit to New York for this week’s United Nations General Assembly.
“You cannot bomb a country, threaten its annihilation, impose a maritime blockade, and coercive measures, and expect automatic restoration of security and navigation,” Araghchi added.
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In response to Araghchi’s comments, a White House official previously told CNN they were having “positive and constructive discussions through the mediators.”
“The United States is in a very strong position with control of the Strait of Hormuz, so we are not in a rush,” the official said.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio struck a similar tone earlier this week, saying, “If there’s going to be a deal with Iran…it’s going to involve a lot of hard work over a period of time.”
The Wall Street Journal, citing US officials, reported on Friday that Trump told staff that a renewed bombing campaign is likely after the upcoming midterm elections. The officials were reported as saying Trump’s views could change over the coming weeks.
In his speech at the UNGA, Trump said: “I have a big decision to make – will a deal be made with Iran that lets them rebuild and create a far greater country than it ever was before?
“Or do I annihilate the Islamic Republic and do it quickly, never giving them a chance to kill and destroy people and countries again.”
Iran’s army spokesperson, Mohammad Akraminia, said Sunday the US could launch a renewed attack on Iran due to its “bad regional situation,” Reuters reported. He added that Tehran is prepared for any confrontation.
Deadly clashes in Yemen
Meanwhile, fresh strikes were reported in Yemen on Sunday, as fighting between the Iran-backed Houthi militant group and Saudi-backed factions flares in the country.
One strike on a market in Yemen’s Taiz province killed at least seven people and injured dozens more, including children, according to the Houthi group’s Ministry of Health.
Yemen’s internationally recognised government, which is backed by Saudi forces, said it was targeting a Houthi military camp, Reuters reported.
In the past month, Houthi militants have captured a long stretch of Yemen’s Red Sea coastline, as well as launching missiles and drones at Saudi energy infrastructure, in a dramatic widening of the Middle East conflict.
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian denied earlier this week that the Yemeni group is receiving orders from Tehran. “The Houthis are responsible for their own actions,” he said.
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