Jon Herskovitz and Steve Holland
Washington/Islamabad: Iran has reportedly given the United States a new proposal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz and end the war, and postpone nuclear negotiations.
The plan, conveyed through mediators in Pakistan to break a stalemate with Washington, called for extending the ceasefire so the parties could work towards a permanent end to the fighting, Axios reported, citing a US official and two people with knowledge of the matter. Nuclear talks would come later, only after a US blockade of the Strait of Hormuz was lifted.
Pakistani mediators had given the proposal to the White House but it was unclear whether the US wanted to explore it, Axios reported. US President Donald Trump planned to hold a meeting in the White House Situation Room on Monday (Washington time) with national security and foreign policy officials, the news outlet reported.
“These are sensitive diplomatic discussions and the US will not negotiate through the press,” White House spokeswoman Olivia Wales said in an email.
“As the president has said, the United States holds the cards and will only make a deal that puts the American people first, never allowing Iran to have a nuclear weapon.”
Crude oil pared gains and Asian stocks extended advances in Monday trading following the Axios report, lifting sentiment after efforts to restart the peace talks stalled.
Hopes of reviving peace efforts receded over the weekend when Trump scrapped a planned trip to Islamabad by his envoys, Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, even as Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi arrived in Pakistan.
Trump on Saturday (Washington time) acknowledged a new plan from Iran, saying that the Islamic Republic quickly sent over a fresh proposal after he told his envoys to stand down from a planned trip to Pakistan for talks.
“Interestingly, immediately, when I cancelled it, within 10 minutes, we got a new paper that was much better,” Trump told reporters, adding that Iran “offered a lot but not enough”.
“They know what has to be in the agreement. It’s very simple: they cannot have a nuclear weapon; otherwise, there’s no reason to meet,” Trump told The Sunday Briefing on Fox News.
Iran has long demanded Washington acknowledge its right to enrich uranium, which Tehran says it only seeks for peaceful purposes, but which Western powers say is aimed at building nuclear weapons.
While a ceasefire has largely held since early April, the US and Iran both continue to maintain a blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, making the key energy choke point virtually impassable.
The disruption to about one-fifth of the world’s oil flows has been dubbed the biggest supply shock in history by the International Energy Agency.
American forces implementing the blockade against Iranian ports had directed 38 ships to turn around or return to port, US Central Command said in a social media post.
Iran is in turn imposing its own blockade of Hormuz, using its “mosquito fleet” of gunboats.
Daily transits are now close to zero, compared with about 135 before the conflict began on February 28. The oil market faces a guaranteed supply loss of about 1 billion barrels – in part because of the time it would take to revive flows once the strait reopened, Vitol Group chief executive Russell Hardy said at the FT Commodities Global Summit in Switzerland.
Araghchi, who shuttled to and from mediators Pakistan and Oman on Sunday before flying to Russia, said in a social media post that Iran had “yet to see if the US is truly serious about diplomacy”.
He said the discussions in Pakistan had reviewed conditions under which Iran-US talks could resume, and stressed that Tehran would seek to secure its rights and national interests following weeks of conflict.
Iran and Oman, as coastal states of the Strait of Hormuz, had agreed to continue expert-level consultations to ensure safe transit and protect shared interests in the waterway, Araghchi said.
Araghchi landed in Russia on Monday to seek support from President Vladimir Putin, with talks expected to canvass bilateral ties and regional issues including the Iran-US conflict.
Disagreements between the US and Iran extend beyond Tehran’s nuclear program and control of the strait.
Trump wants to limit Iran’s support for its regional proxies, including Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in Gaza, and curb its ability to strike US allies with ballistic missiles. Iran wants a lifting of sanctions and an end to Israeli attacks on Hezbollah.
In Lebanon, Israeli strikes killed 14 people and wounded 37 on Sunday, the health ministry said. The Israeli military warned residents to leave seven towns beyond the “buffer zone” it occupied before a ceasefire that has failed to fully halt hostilities.
Bloomberg, Reuters
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