Iran said it was waiting for a formal response from the United States after President Donald Trump publicly brushed off Tehran’s offer to reopen the Strait of Hormuz and resume negotiations in seven days.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said on Friday that Tehran had provided a seven-day roadmap through mediators during diplomatic talks on the fringes of the United Nations General Assembly in New York. Trump told reporters at the White House Saturday that he had turned down the offer.
Iran’s position indicates it is divorcing Trump’s public statements from a formal response via the diplomatic channel between the two countries.
"We are waiting for the mediators to pass the definitive views to us, and we will take a decision based on them," Araghchi said in a post on Telegram.
But Trump said the plan was not acceptable.
“I don’t accept their offer,” Trump told reporters Saturday. Iran wants an agreement that would lead to the immediate opening of the strait, he said, adding the United States already had a strong position in the waterway.
Disputed is the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow waterway between Iran and Oman that links the Persian Gulf with the Gulf of Oman. Under normal circumstances, about one-fifth of the world’s oil consumption and one-fifth of the world’s liquefied natural gas trade pass through the waterway.
Iran sees the reopening of the Hormuz Strait as part of wider talks.
Araghchi said Iran's offer depended on conditions discussed in a June memorandum of understanding with Washington.
The June document called for a halt to military operations and included provisions on navigation through the Strait of Hormuz, sanctions, and a broader negotiating process. The publicly released versions of the document, however, have varied in their status, with the version from the American Presidency Project labelled as a draft.
Iran’s latest offer was made in indirect negotiations with mediators. Qatar has also shuttled messages between Washington and Tehran, as has Oman.
Omani Foreign Minister Sayyid Badr bin Hamad bin Hamood Albusaidi urged the parties to continue talking and to try to ensure navigation through the waterway.
The latest diplomatic push comes after months of conflict and disruption around the strait. Maritime data-driven reports show that some vessels have continued to transit the waterway, despite the sharp drop in commercial traffic. This makes “effectively closed” a better description of the wider disruption than a complete closure.
Economic pressure continues in Washington.
The diplomatic row comes as the US widens its sanctions campaign against Iran.
On August 24, the US Treasury Department announced Operation Economic Outcast—a broad campaign targeting Iran’s financial networks, oil revenues, and sanctions-evasion activities. Since then, the administration has broadened its actions against Iranian financial and commercial networks.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the economic pressure is designed to limit Tehran’s ability to fund the conflict and force changes in its policies.
The United States has also acted against Iranian airlines and those who do business with Tehran. The Treasury has warned foreign institutions and companies that they could face U.S. financial penalties if they continue to do business with sanctioned Iranian networks.
The effectiveness of these measures is still uncertain. Part of their impact will depend on the response of countries and companies still doing business with Iran to the heightened risk of sanctions.
China is especially important because it has been a large purchaser of Iranian oil and has continued to buy Iranian crude in defiance of prior rounds of US sanctions.
Tehran says it is now waiting for the formal diplomatic response to its latest proposal, while Washington has publicly dismissed the seven-day roadmap. That gap leaves talks over the Strait of Hormuz and the wider conflict in limbo.
