Trump Dismisses Iran’s Seven-Day Plan to Reopen Strait of Hormuz

Tehran had submitted a proposal via Qatar to reopen the strait and resume nuclear talks within a week if Washington agreed.

President Donald Trump on Saturday rejected a roadmap submitted by Iran to open the Strait of Hormuz within seven days. “I reject their proposal,” Trump told reporters outside the White House before departing for a campaign event in Tennessee.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said on Friday that Tehran had formally delivered a seven‑day plan to the United States through mediator Qatar and was awaiting a response. “It appears as though the proposal is dead in the water,” Al Jazeera’s Mike Hanna reported from Washington.

U.S. media reports late Friday had already signaled that Trump would turn down the offer. The Wall Street Journal, citing unnamed officials, said the president was “privately sceptical” that Iran would meet his demands and expected a renewed bombing campaign against Iran after the November midterm elections.

The Strait of Hormuz, a critical artery for global oil supplies, remains at the center of the impasse between Washington and Tehran, which has persisted for nearly seven months despite renewed mediation efforts this week.

Earlier in the week, Araghchi held talks with Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff and outlined conditions for ending the conflict and reopening the vital shipping channel. On Friday, the Iranian diplomat told the United Nations General Assembly in New York: “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.”

Under the plan, Washington would lift its naval blockade of Iranian ports, waive sanctions on Iranian oil sales, release an estimated $12 billion in frozen Iranian assets, and observe a regional ceasefire covering Lebanon and Yemen. “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,” Araghchi added.

On Saturday, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian told Al Jazeera that Tehran no longer trusts negotiations with the U.S. after previous talks were followed by attacks and sanctions. “We have no trust in the American side and do not know on what basis an understanding can be reached with it,” said Pezeshkian, who was also in New York for the UNGA.

He denied that Iran was responsible for blocking the Strait of Hormuz, saying the United States “closed the routes before us” and described the closure as “a natural response when routes are cut off to Iran.” The Iranian president said the crisis could be resolved through negotiations rather than force, and that the waterway would reopen to commercial shipping if talks ended the war.

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