Trump Dismisses Iran's Seven-Day Hormuz Truce Offer, Says Talks Could Restart Within Days

US President Donald Trump said on Sunday that he expects negotiations with Iran to resume in the coming week, even as he openly rejected a seven-day truce proposal from Tehran that would have been followed by the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz. The mixed signal left the most dangerous maritime corridor in the world perched between escalation and a partial détente, with both sides insisting the ball is in the other's court.

Iran's proposal, according to Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, called for a seven-day period in which all hostilities across the Middle East would cease — including fighting in Lebanon — before a return to the terms of an earlier ceasefire agreement that collapsed. Speaking at the United Nations, Araghchi said Iran had passed a "concrete seven-day plan" to Washington through Qatar, adding pointedly: "The choice now rests at the United States."

The sticking points are not symbolic. The earlier agreement, which Washington and Tehran signed as a memorandum of understanding in June, had called for the release of frozen Iranian assets, the lifting of sanctions on Iranian oil, and an end to the US naval blockade. Those three elements form the core of what Iran says it expects in exchange for allowing commercial traffic back into the strait.

Tehran showed no sign of retreating from that position over the weekend. "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 in remarks carried by state broadcaster IRIB. He added that Iran "have never closed the door to diplomacy or negotiations, but at the same time, we have never backed down from our rights."

Trump, for his part, was equally dismissive of the terms on offer. In an interview with Axios published Sunday, the US president said: "They want to make a deal, but it is not the deal that I want to make." He characterised the offer as roughly resembling what might have been agreed "a year ago," before Iran's positions hardened, and accused Tehran of having "overplayed their hand." At the same time, Trump has raised the possibility of resuming full-scale air strikes on Iranian targets.

The apparent contradiction is deliberate ambiguity rather than confusion, and the president's own framing suggests a test of resolve. By publicly rejecting the package while keeping negotiations alive, Washington signals that any resumption of talks begins from Washington's terms, not Tehran's. Trump's reference to an agreement "a year ago" also implicitly points to the limits of the June memorandum, which he now appears to regard as an expired precedent rather than a baseline.

Timing may be the most consequential detail of the weekend. Axios, citing sources familiar with the matter, reported that indirect talks between Washington and Tehran could take place as early as Monday — a fast turnaround that suggests both capitals are testing whether a channel remains open even after a public rejection. Officials on both sides have so far described the contacts, if they have begun, as indirect, consistent with the deep distrust left by the collapse of the June deal and the fighting that followed.

US Ambassador to the United Nations Mike Waltz dismissed Tehran's overture as an insincere opening gambit. In an interview with NBC News, he called it "a pretty cynical attempt to put something on the table that they knew was unacceptable," arguing that asking for the lifting of the blockade, of international sanctions and access to billions in frozen assets merely "just to talk" set a bar no US negotiator could clear. Waltz also said there was "common sense" that the president had "a lot of confidence this time" less than he did a few months ago — a pointed hint that the previous round of diplomacy failed.

The June understanding had been intended to end the war, reopen the strait and launch talks on Iran's nuclear programme. It broke down shortly afterwards, when Iran fired on commercial vessels in the waterway that it accused of straying from an approved route. Tehran has since required ships to obtain authorisation before passage, citing security and sovereignty reasons, and vessels that refuse to comply have been regularly targeted. The United States has responded by sporadically bombing Iranian coastal areas.

The strait itself remains contested territory beyond the diplomatic channel. Iran's Revolutionary Guards said on Sunday that they had seized an American submersible drone in the Strait of Hormuz, claiming the underwater vehicle was being used for "espionage purposes" and had been handed to the force's specialists "for data recovery." The claim, neither confirmed nor denied by Washington, underlines how military and intelligence activity continues alongside the trade in threats and counter-threats.

Hardline messaging from the Guards has accompanied the diplomatic overtures. Hossein Mohebi, a Revolutionary Guards spokesman, told Tasnim news agency that Iran "will not cease punishing the US until Iran's seven conditions are met." Mohebi told AFP in an exclusive interview on Tuesday that ending hostilities in Yemen also featured among Tehran's demands — broadening the proposed package well beyond the waterway itself.

The result is a stalemate on the Gulf front, with fighting continuing elsewhere in the region, including Yemen. For now, the sequence matters more than the rhetoric: whether indirect contacts begin on Monday, whether Washington follows its warnings with strikes, and whether the two sides can find a formula that separates the reopening of Hormuz from the full package of sanctions relief and frozen assets. Each of those tests arrives almost immediately.

Trump was pictured returning to the White House after a trip to Tennessee on September 26, 2026. The week ahead promises to be among the most consequential of the conflict so far, with the president insisting the deal on the table is not the deal he wants — while simultaneously indicating that talks will resume.