Trump rejects Iran’s seven-day Hormuz offer as both sides point to fresh talks

President Donald Trump said on Saturday that he had rejected an Iranian proposal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz and end the fighting⁶. He told reporters that he had denied the proposal⁵. Under the plan, Iran would reopen the strait within seven days in exchange for the United States ending its blockade of Iranian ports^1,4. The offer came from Iran’s president and top diplomat, and was pitched as a deal to end the fighting and open the waterway³.

Tehran did not withdraw it after the rebuff. Iranian officials said on Sunday that they were standing firm on their conditions for reopening the strait despite the rejection⁷, and Iran said it was still awaiting an official US response rather than treating press remarks as the answer².

Why it matters to investors

The Strait of Hormuz is a key shipping route in the Persian Gulf², and the offer on the table would have restored traffic on a one-week clock¹. What Washington rejected was therefore not a general peace settlement but a sequenced trade: the blockade of Iranian ports lifted in return for the strait⁴.

Trump told Axios in a phone interview on Sunday that he expects US negotiators to engage in more talks with Iran this week¹⁰. In the same conversation he said he is “always thinking about” renewing strikes against Iran⁹. For anyone pricing energy or freight risk, those two statements are not in tension; they describe a negotiation running alongside a live military option.

What to watch

The gap is over subject matter, not only terms. Iran wants any talks to focus on the Strait of Hormuz and the US naval blockade, while the Trump administration is demanding that Iran agree to nuclear concessions¹⁰. Qatar and other regional mediators are trying to revive negotiations between the two governments, and two regional sources confirmed Trump’s comment about another round of indirect dialogue this week¹⁰.

Three developments would change the picture: a formal US answer delivered through the channels Tehran recognizes²; an indirect round actually convening on the timetable Trump described⁹; and any softening of Iran’s stated conditions, which as of Sunday had not moved⁷. Coverage of the war has settled into a daily count rather than a countdown to a deal¹, and the rejection leaves the chokepoint where it stood before the offer was made⁶.