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US President Donald Trump said Sunday that negotiations with Iran could resume as early as this week, despite rejecting a proposal from Tehran for a seven-day truce and the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz.
Iranian officials presented the proposal during the UN General Assembly in New York. The plan called for a week-long cessation of hostilities, followed by the reopening of the strategic shipping route.
Trump rejected the proposal while suggesting that the United States could resume large-scale air strikes against Iranian targets. In an interview with Axios published Sunday, however, he said he expected talks with Tehran to restart.
“They want to make a deal, but it is not the deal that I want to make,” Trump said, adding that it was similar to what Washington might have accepted a year earlier.
“They overplayed their hand,” he said.
Citing people familiar with the discussions, Axios reported that indirect talks between Washington and Tehran could begin as early as Monday.
Iran continued to insist on its conditions for reopening the Strait of Hormuz, leaving the Gulf front of the conflict at an impasse as fighting continued in Yemen.
The waterway is a crucial route for global energy supplies and has become a central flashpoint in the confrontation between Washington and Tehran, which began nearly seven months ago after US and Israeli strikes on Iran.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Tehran’s proposal covered a cessation of hostilities across the Middle East, including Lebanon, and a return to terms outlined in an earlier ceasefire agreement.
That agreement included the release of frozen Iranian assets, the lifting of sanctions on Iranian oil and an end to the US naval blockade, according to Iranian officials.
“Our conditions are clear, and any move toward reopening the Strait of Hormuz is contingent upon these conditions being fulfilled. We will not back down from them,” Araghchi said Sunday, according to Iranian state broadcaster IRIB.
He added that Iran had never closed the door to diplomacy but would not compromise on what it considers its rights.
US Ambassador to the United Nations Mike Waltz accused Tehran of making excessive demands in return for returning to negotiations.
Meanwhile, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said it had seized an American submersible drone in the Strait of Hormuz on Sunday.
The Guards said the underwater vehicle was being used for “espionage purposes” and that it had been handed over to specialists for data recovery.
Washington and Tehran signed a memorandum of understanding in June aimed at ending the conflict, reopening the Strait of Hormuz and beginning negotiations on Iran’s nuclear programme.
The agreement subsequently collapsed after Iran opened fire on commercial vessels in the strait, accusing them of deviating from authorised routes.
Iran requires vessels to obtain permission before transiting the waterway, citing security and sovereignty concerns. Ships that fail to comply have faced attacks, while the United States has periodically carried out strikes on Iranian coastal areas in retaliation.
Araghchi said at the UN that Iran had conveyed a concrete seven-day proposal to Washington through Qatar, adding that the decision now rested with the United States.
Iranian Revolutionary Guards spokesman Hossein Mohebi was quoted by Tasnim news agency as saying Tehran would continue its campaign against the United States until Iran’s seven conditions were met. He previously told AFP that an end to hostilities in Yemen was among those demands.
