Iran offers Hormuz reopening and truce before nuke talks; Trump unhappy: Report

Donald Trump is unhappy with Iran's latest proposal to resolve the two-month war, further weakening hopes of easing a conflict that has disrupted energy supplies and fuelled inflation.

In Short

• Iran proposes ending hostilities before nuclear talks
• Trump unlikely to accept Iran’s phased peace plan
• US demands nuclear talks upfront, rejects delay

US President Donald Trump is unlikely to accept Iran’s latest proposal to resolve the ongoing West Asia conflict in a phased manner, with officials saying the plan falls short of Washington’s core demand that Tehran’s nuclear programme be addressed upfront, according to reports citing US officials.

According to US officials, Trump is dissatisfied with Tehran's proposal, which seeks to defer negotiations on Iran’s nuclear activities until after a ceasefire is achieved and disputes over maritime security, particularly in the Strait of Hormuz, are resolved. The US administration considers the nuclear issue central to any durable settlement and is unwilling to separate it from broader negotiations, news agency Reuters reported.

Iran's three-point proposal amid the stalemate in peace talks outlines a phased approach: first ending the US-Israel war on Iran and securing guarantees against renewed hostilities; then resolving the US naval blockade and reopening key shipping routes; and only later addressing contentious issues such as Iran’s nuclear programme and uranium enrichment rights.

A US official briefed on Trump’s meeting with advisers said the president rejected the sequencing, insisting nuclear concerns must be tackled from the outset. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio echoed that stance, saying any agreement must ensure Iran cannot develop nuclear weapons.

“We can’t let them get away with it,” Rubio said in a Fox News interview Monday. “We have to ensure that any deal that is made, any agreement that is made, is one that definitively prevents them from sprinting towards a nuclear weapon at any point.”

One of the main reasons, according to Donald Trump, for going to war with Iran was to deny it the ability to develop nuclear weapons.

The latest impasse has further dimmed prospects for diplomacy, with planned talks in Islamabad called off after Donald Trump cancelled a visit by envoy Steve Witkoff and adviser Jared Kushner. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi has since travelled to Pakistan, Oman and Russia, where he met President Vladimir Putin, a longstanding ally of Tehran.

Amid the discussions, officials from the US and Iran clashed over Tehran’s nuclear ambitions at the opening of the UN Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) review conference, with the dispute centred on Iran’s election as one of 34 vice-presidents, a nomination backed by the Non-Aligned Movement.

The US, supported by Australia, the UAE, the UK, France and Germany, opposed the move, with Washington saying it was “deeply shocked” that a country it accused of showing “contempt” for the treaty was elevated to the post. Russia pushed back against singling out Iran, while Iran’s envoy Reza Najafi dismissed the criticism as “baseless and politically motivated.”

Meanwhile, dozens of nations repeated calls to open the critical waterway in a joint statement led by Bahrain. Iran has condemned the seizures of its oil shipments by the US in the Strait of Hormuz as “piracy,” while signalling it could ease its grip on the strait if Washington lifts the blockade and ends the war.

Tensions in the Gulf continue to roil global markets. Oil prices have surged, with Brent crude rising sharply as tanker traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, through which roughly a fifth of global oil passes, remains severely constrained. Ship-tracking data shows only a handful of vessels transiting the strait in recent days, compared to more than 100 daily before the conflict, with several Iran-linked tankers forced to turn back due to the US blockade.

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