Trump rejects Iran’s proposal to reopen Strait of Hormuz and end conflict

US President Donald Trump on Saturday dismissed Iran’s latest proposal to end the war, a plan Tehran said would reopen the Strait of Hormuz and restart peace talks within seven days.

“I reject their proposal,” Trump bluntly told reporters as he boarded Marine One ahead of a trip to Tennessee.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said on Thursday that Tehran had delivered the proposal to US officials through mediators earlier this week.

He said it was similar to the agreement the two sides reached in June, which Tehran interpreted as giving Iran control over the strait, a condition the US and its allies in the region have rejected.

After Israel and the United States attacked Iran in late February, Iran mined the waterway and warned ships not to pass without coordinating with Tehran. Traffic slowed to a trickle, driving up energy prices worldwide.

Trump said: “They want to make a deal where they open the strait immediately because they’re losing so badly.”

The US has imposed a naval blockade on Iran’s ports, choking off its oil exports with the aim of applying economic pressure to Tehran.

The Strait of Hormuz is a vital waterway for international shipping that has been effectively choked off since February. Photo via Getty Images

Trump told the UN General Assembly on Tuesday that Tehran could make a deal to end the conflict or face “annihilation”. The Iranian delegation walked out of the chamber. The next day, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian told the assembly that Iran was “ready for dialogue and diplomacy and negotiations without accepting the language of force”.

Pezeshkian said this week that Iran had a right to develop “peaceful nuclear technologies” and repeated Tehran’s long-standing claim that it was not seeking nuclear weapons. Trump has said he launched the war alongside Israel to keep Tehran from obtaining them.

• Trump accuses Iran of meddling in midterms as wave of missiles targets US base in Jordan
• Iran strikes ships, expands no-go zone outside Hormuz strait
• Iran threatens greater force if US launches more attacks
• US strikes three Iranian oil tankers after missiles fired at warships
• Iran Guards claim US bases in Iraq struck with missiles, drones

At home, soaring gasoline and diesel prices are adding to the political pressure on Trump ahead of the November 3 midterm elections.

High gas prices and other cost-of-living pressures, which experts say are not likely to soon ease, are bedevilling Republicans as they try to hang on to control of Congress.

And gubernatorial candidates in Ohio and Massachusetts this week pushed tax holidays ahead of the elections, part of a trend among state officials eager to give voters a break from fuel prices driven up by the war.

Trump acknowledged early this month at the GOP’s midterm convention in Dallas that gasoline prices would remain high through the midterms, but he said they “will be plummeting” right afterward.

He said: “The war will be over very shortly after the election.”