Iranian officials said Wednesday they had received a U.S. response to Tehran’s latest proposal to end the seven-month war, but they didn’t disclose its contents or say whether Washington had rejected it. Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi presented the response to President Masoud Pezeshkian at a Cabinet meeting, government spokesperson Fatemeh Mohajerani told the state-run IRNA news agency.
“We will make every effort to bring the agreement to fruition and will firmly stand up for the rights of the Iranian people,” Pezeshkian said. “The agreement must now be based on a win-win strategy.”
The blockade and negotiations
Araghchi returned to Iran after traveling to New York for the U.N. General Assembly the previous week. There, Iranian officials held indirect talks with U.S. officials and met Qatari and Pakistani mediators. He briefed the Cabinet on his trip and on Iran’s conditions for reopening the Strait of Hormuz, which Mohajerani said had been conveyed through mediators.
An official briefed on the talks, who wasn’t Iranian and spoke to Reuters on condition of anonymity, said Qataris briefed Araghchi on the U.S. response Tuesday in Doha. The official said the sides largely agreed on the steps needed but disagreed over the order in which to take them.
Araghchi said he had proposed reopening the strait in a week if the United States lifted its blockade of Iranian ports, released frozen Iranian assets and waived sanctions on Iranian oil sales, among other conditions. Trump rejected the offer, saying Iran wanted a deal because it was “losing so badly” and that the proposal “would not be acceptable.” Mediators continued working to broker an agreement to end the fighting and reopen the strait, officials who weren’t authorized to comment publicly said.
Washington imposed a counterblockade of Iranian ports to prevent Tehran from exporting oil. The U.S. Treasury Department announced sanctions Tuesday against 10 individuals and entities based in Iran, Hong Kong and Pakistan, accusing them of procuring weapons and weapon components for Iran’s Defense Ministry. The action formed part of the administration’s “Operation Economic Outcast” campaign, which it said aimed to sever “critical financial lifelines” for Iran’s government.
Shipping risks and Israeli demands
Britain’s UKMTO maritime security body reported Wednesday that unknown projectiles struck three ships in the Strait of Hormuz the previous day. The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations Centre said a crude oil tanker and two other vessels had each “been struck by an unknown projectile.” Before the war, around a fifth of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas passed through the shipping lane. Since the conflict began, Tehran has blocked commercial ships and fired on vessels it accused of unauthorized crossings.
In an interview with Maariv, former national security council head Meir Ben-Shabbat warned that pressure on Iran could lead Tehran to consider a direct attack on Israel. He said a future U.S.-Iran agreement could provide Iran’s government with a strategic lifeline, and argued Israel should remain prepared for a possible attack.
Ben-Shabbat also said Israel should retain security control in Gaza and continue its war until Hamas’s military and governing capabilities were “completely eliminated,” the territory was “completely demilitarized,” and Israeli security control was established. He said he wasn’t aware of a change in Israel’s war goals. These were his stated conditions for the war’s end.
Asked about European measures targeting goods from the West Bank, east Jerusalem and the Golan Heights, Ben-Shabbat said he didn’t know the precise figures. He said some international actors placed greater importance on harming settlements in Judea and Samaria than on Palestinians’ economic well-being there, calling it “another expression of the double standard and hypocrisy on their part.”
Economic pressure and the war’s effects
Iran’s economy faced heavy strain before the war and entered a free fall after the conflict began in late February. On Tuesday, traders in Tehran exchanged more than 2.5 million rials for one U.S. dollar, a record low. Trump said Iran was “failing very badly, very badly” and predicted the war would be “over with very, very soon.”