Trump Rejects Iran's Seven-Day Hormuz Peace Plan, Eyes Post-Midterm Bombing
Trump has rejected Iran's plan to reopen the Strait of Hormuz and pause regional fighting within seven days, and expects to resume bombing after November's congressional elections.
US President Donald Trump has turned down an Iranian proposal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz and halt fighting across the region within seven days, and has told aides he expects to resume bombing after November's congressional elections, according to US officials cited in a Wall Street Journal report.
Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi told reporters at the United Nations on Friday that the peace plan had been passed to Washington through Qatari mediators. Under the proposal, a deal would set off a seven-day countdown to reopening the strait and a pause in hostilities on all fronts, including Lebanon.
"If there is seriousness on the US side to come to a deal and reopen the Strait of Hormuz, everything is now prepared," Araqchi said.
A US official had described the talks with Iran through the mediators as "positive and constructive," but the Journal reported that Trump was privately doubtful Tehran would meet his demands. He has told his staff that a renewed bombing campaign looks likely, the report said. The claim could not be independently confirmed.
Should Washington agree, Araqchi said, the warring parties could begin broader negotiations on "mutually agreed subjects." Tehran would reopen the Strait of Hormuz and end hostilities on all fronts. In return, the plan calls for the United States to lift its blockade on Iranian ports, release frozen Iranian funds and waive oil sanctions.
The proposal follows earlier diplomatic efforts that failed to end the war, which began on February 28 with US and Israeli strikes. The conflict has since swung between pauses and fresh strikes, killing thousands, degrading Iran's conventional forces and further damaging its already ailing economy.
Iran and its allies have widened the war across the region. Iran has struck US allies in the Gulf with drones and missiles, while its Houthi allies in Yemen have targeted Saudi interests. Iranian-aligned militias in Iraq were blamed for a pipeline attack that briefly removed Saudi oil from the market, and Iranian-backed Hezbollah has been fighting Israeli forces in Lebanon.
With Yemen's Saudi-backed, internationally recognised government under assault from Iran-linked Houthi fighters and Houthi missiles striking inside Saudi Arabia, allies of the kingdom have closed ranks. Defence officials of Turkey and Pakistan, both partners in a joint defence pact with Saudi Arabia, met in Riyadh on Friday to review the security situation and discuss intelligence cooperation, military coordination and force integration, the Saudi defence ministry said. The meeting followed talks a day earlier among the Saudi, Pakistani and Turkish foreign ministers under the Mecca Joint Defence Agreement.
The violence in Yemen has triggered a new humanitarian crisis, the United Nations children's agency said on Friday, reporting a rise in acute malnutrition among children.