Iran says only diplomacy can resolve its conflict with the US and Israel as Tehran awaits Washington’s formal response to its proposal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz.
Iran on Sunday insisted that only diplomacy could resolve its conflict with the United States and Israel, while saying it was still waiting for an official US response to its proposal to reopen the strategically vital Strait of Hormuz and halt fighting in the region.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said Tehran’s conditions for reopening the waterway remained unchanged, and that any move towards reopening it would depend on those conditions being met.
“Our conditions are clear, and any move toward reopening the Strait of Hormuz is contingent on these conditions being met,” Araqchi said, according to Reuters.
“Only a negotiated solution can get them out of this deadlock,” he added.
Iran had announced its peace proposal during the UN General Assembly in New York earlier this week, saying it had been transmitted to the United States through Qatari mediators. However, US President Donald Trump said on Saturday that he had rejected the proposal.
“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.
The Associated Press reported that Iran’s proposal offered to reopen the Strait of Hormuz and resume talks on its nuclear programme within seven days if the United States lifted its naval blockade of Iranian ports, waived sanctions on Iranian oil sales and observed a ceasefire that would include Lebanon.
According to AP, Araqchi had said on Friday that the seven-day timeline would begin once Washington accepted the proposal.
Initial steps would take around four to five days, with the strait opening on the sixth day and talks with the United States beginning on the seventh day on a final deal covering mutually agreed subjects.
Despite Trump’s public rejection, Araqchi said Iranian mediators had not formally conveyed a US rejection of the proposal to Tehran.
“We are waiting for the mediators to convey the definitive views to us, and we will make a decision based on them,” he said, according to Reuters.
The US has imposed an economic blockade on Iran as it seeks to pressure Tehran to stop attacks on vessels in the Strait of Hormuz.
Shipping through the waterway has fallen sharply amid the conflict.
Trump has repeatedly asserted that the US controls the strait.
The Wall Street Journal was the first to report Trump’s rejection, citing unnamed US officials, Reuters reported.
A report with the WSJ said Trump was privately sceptical that Iran would meet his demands and had told staff that he viewed a renewed bombing campaign as likely after the November US midterm elections.
A US official had earlier described discussions with Iran through mediators as “positive and constructive”.
The stakes are particularly high because the seven-month-old conflict has disrupted oil flows through the critical shipping route and affected the global economy, Reuters reported.
Iran has also engaged its regional rival Saudi Arabia over the Strait of Hormuz.