Nicolai Haugsted
Trump rejects Tehran’s proposal as Iran warns that only negotiations can break the current deadlock.
Seven months of war have left the Middle East with battered economies, disrupted shipping and a Strait of Hormuz that has become one of the most important bargaining chips on the table.
Washington and Tehran now have another proposal to argue over.
Donald Trump says he has already rejected Iran’s latest attempt at reaching an agreement. Tehran, however, is refusing to declare the effort dead and insists negotiations remain the only realistic route out of the conflict.
Fresh talks could come sooner than the public disagreement suggests.
Trump told Axios on Sunday that he expects American negotiators to engage with Iran again this week, while regional mediators continue working behind the scenes.
Iran says diplomacy is the only way out
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi used social media on Sunday to reiterate Tehran’s position on the Strait of Hormuz.
“Our conditions are clear, and any move toward reopening the Strait of Hormuz is contingent on these conditions being met,” Araqchi wrote according to Reuters.
“Only a negotiated solution can get them out of this deadlock.”
Iran presented its latest proposal during the UN General Assembly in New York last week, with Qatar acting as an intermediary between Tehran and Washington.
The proposal would create a path toward reopening the strategically vital waterway and restarting broader negotiations.
Trump publicly rejected it on Saturday. Axios separately reported that Iran had offered to reopen the strait and resume nuclear negotiations within a week if Washington lifted its naval blockade, removed sanctions on Iranian oil sales and restored a regional ceasefire.
Trump sees desperation rather than compromise
Trump has portrayed Iran’s diplomatic push very differently.
“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.
American military operations have weakened Iran’s ability to control traffic through the strait, while Washington has increasingly escorted oil shipments through the waterway.
US officials argue that Iran consequently has less leverage than it possessed earlier in the conflict.
Trump’s rejection does not appear to have killed negotiations altogether.
“I expect more talks with Iran [this week]. They want to make a deal, but it is not the deal that I want to make. It is what we would have maybe agreed to a year ago. They overplayed their hand,” Trump told Axios on Sunday.
Qatari mediators are continuing discussions with both sides and could hold separate meetings with American and Iranian officials as early as Monday, according to Axios.
Tehran says it is still waiting for the official answer
Public statements from Washington have been clear enough.
Tehran nevertheless says diplomatic protocol has yet to catch up.
Araqchi said Iran’s mediators had not formally delivered Washington’s definitive response to the proposal.
“We are waiting for the mediators to convey the definitive views to us, and we will make a decision based on them,” he wrote.
Such wording leaves Tehran some room to continue negotiations despite Trump’s public rejection.
Araqchi separately told NBC on Sunday that Iran remained prepared for negotiations and was still waiting for an official response through the intermediaries.
Talks therefore remain alive, even if neither side appears remotely ready to accept the other’s starting position.
Hormuz remains the giant bargaining chip
Few stretches of water carry as much economic importance as the Strait of Hormuz.
Iranian attacks on vessels have severely disrupted commercial shipping since the conflict began, while American military operations have sought to restore the flow of oil through the waterway.
Trump has repeatedly argued that the United States now effectively controls passage through the strait.
Iran rejects any arrangement that would allow its regional rivals to trade normally while Tehran remains economically strangled.
Army commander Amir Hatami delivered that message in particularly stark terms.
“If Iran cannot trade, if Iran cannot live, no one will be able to trade or live,” he said, according to Iranian state media.
Washington has used sanctions, a naval blockade and military pressure to force Tehran toward concessions.
Iran has responded by treating access to Hormuz as one of its strongest remaining pieces of negotiating leverage.
Washington wants more than an open shipping lane
Disagreement goes far beyond oil tankers.
Trump’s administration wants any broader agreement to address Iran’s nuclear program, while Tehran’s immediate proposal focuses heavily on sanctions, the blockade and the regional war.
US ambassador to the United Nations Mike Waltz said Trump’s rejection reflected doubts about both the substance of Iran’s proposal and Tehran’s intentions.
“So the bottom line is they were asking for everything up front with a promise that they would then talk,” Waltz told CNN’s State of the Union.
“The president’s just not confident that the Iranians are coming in good faith and that they will truly negotiate the end of their nuclear programme.”
Iran maintains that it does not intend to build nuclear weapons.
President Masoud Pezeshkian told CBS that Tehran remains willing to discuss its nuclear program and other issues but will not negotiate under what it considers intimidation.
“Iran is not seeking war, but will defend itself against pressure, threats and attacks,” Pezeshkian said, adding that Tehran had already agreed that “we’re not supposed to develop nuclear weapons.”
Saudi Arabia is getting pulled further into the conflict
Any diplomatic failure carries consequences far beyond Iran and the United States.
Fighting that began with US and Israeli strikes on Iran on February 28 has spread across the region during the following seven months.
Iran has attacked American allies with drones and missiles, while the Iran-backed Houthis in Yemen have increased pressure on Saudi interests.
Saudi Arabia has faced mounting security concerns as Houthi forces have advanced against the Saudi-backed Yemeni government and threatened oil exports through the Red Sea.
Schools in Riyadh informed parents on Sunday that classes would move online for the week, according to Reuters’ reporting cited in the supplied source. No reason was given for the decision, and Saudi authorities had not immediately commented.
Fighting inside Yemen has also continued.
The Houthi-run health ministry said seven people were killed and 40 wounded in a strike on shops near the Mawiya junction in Taiz province.
Yemen’s internationally recognized government later said its forces had targeted a Houthi military camp and vehicles in the same area.
