Iran keeps door open for talks as Trump rejects Hormuz proposal

Iran FM Araghchi says Tehran awaiting formal response to Hormuz proposal

Tehran is awaiting a formal US response to its seven-day proposal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz and end the conflict, Iranian foreign minister Abbas Araghchi said on Sunday, despite US president Donald Trump publicly rejecting the plan.Araghchi said Tehran had taken note of Trump's reaction but had not received Washington's definitive position through the mediators. “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 Iranian state media IRNA.He reiterated Iran's position that reopening the strategic waterway would depend on Tehran's conditions being met.“Our conditions are clear,” Araghchi said. “Any move toward reopening the Strait of Hormuz is contingent on these conditions being met.”“Only a negotiated solution can get them out of this deadlock. That is our position,” he added, according to Al Jazeera.Iran had presented the seven-day roadmap at the United Nations General Assembly in New York and said it had been conveyed to Washington through Qatari mediators. The proposal envisaged reopening the Strait of Hormuz and resuming talks on Iran's nuclear programme within a week, subject to US agreement.

The proposal included conditions such as lifting the US naval blockade of Iranian ports, waiving sanctions on Iranian oil sales and observing a ceasefire that would include Lebanon. Araghchi had earlier said the initial steps would take four to five days, with the strait reopening on the sixth day and negotiations beginning on the seventh.Trump, however, said on Saturday that he had rejected the proposal. “I reject their proposal.

... I rejected their deal,” Trump told reporters, according to AP."They want an agreement to be made under which the Strait of Hormuz is immediately opened, because they are severely failing,” he added.As reported by the Iranian state-affiliated Student News Network (SNN), quoting US officials, the US president has told aides he expects to resume bombing Iran after the November midterms. This follows his open threat of annihilating Iran made during his speech to the UN General Assembly earlier this week.