Donald Trump has rejected an Iranian plan to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, saying the proposal would not be acceptable as Tehran seeks to resume negotiations with the United States.
Speaking to reporters as he left the White House on Saturday, Mr Trump offered no further explanation. “I like making a deal too,” he said. “But, I’m not — that deal would not be acceptable.”
He added: “They want to make a deal where they open the strait immediately because they’re losing so badly.”
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said on Friday that Tehran had sent Washington a “concrete seven-day plan” through Qatar. Under the proposal, normal maritime passage could resume within seven days if the necessary conditions were met.
“The choice now rests with the United States,” Mr Araghchi said.
The plan was presented during United Nations General Assembly meetings in New York this week and included a call for US-Iran negotiations to restart. It was similar to a memorandum of understanding reached by the two countries in June, which had been intended to pause fighting and revive ceasefire talks.
Under that agreement, Iran was to receive relief from a US naval blockade, while Washington would ease sanctions and release frozen Iranian assets. Iran, in return, promised not to seek a nuclear weapon and said it would reopen the Strait of Hormuz.
The June agreement later collapsed amid disputes over the wording, including provisions concerning control of the strait, and strikes resumed soon afterwards.
Mr Araghchi said the measures sought by Iran were already covered by the earlier memorandum. “They are all already in the MoU,” he said. “They are already under the commitments of the United States. So we don’t see any difficulty to implement them.”
Iran initially closed the strategically important waterway after the US and Israel attacked Iran on February 28. The repeated closures have caused major disruption to the world’s oil supply.
In a prerecorded interview due to be broadcast on Sunday, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said Tehran would honour its commitments if the US demonstrated that it did not intend to overthrow Iran’s government.
Mr Pezeshkian said that, if Washington accepted the proposal to reopen the strait and resume nuclear negotiations, Iran would allow United Nations nuclear inspectors to enter the country.
