Qatari mediators are pursuing separate talks with Washington and Tehran over an amended plan that could reopen the Strait of Hormuz, lift the U.S. blockade of Iranian ports and restart nuclear negotiations despite President Donald Trump’s public rejection of Iran’s initial proposal.
By yourNEWS Media Newsroom.
NEW YORK — Diplomatic efforts to end the U.S.-Iran war remained active Monday, with Qatari mediators preparing separate discussions with both sides over a revised proposal centered on reopening the Strait of Hormuz and easing American economic pressure on Tehran.
The latest negotiations have continued despite President Donald Trump’s announcement over the weekend that he rejected Iran’s seven-day peace proposal. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi remained in New York after the United Nations General Assembly awaiting further contact through mediators, while an official briefed on the diplomacy told Reuters that Qatar was expected to meet separately with Araghchi and U.S. representatives Monday or Tuesday.
Iranian state-linked media subsequently confirmed that Araghchi planned to meet mediators Monday morning, New York time, to “examine the latest proposals and views regarding the current situation.”
Three officials familiar with the negotiations told The Associated Press that mediators had continued working with Washington and Tehran through the weekend rather than treating Trump’s public rejection as the end of diplomacy.
One official described signals from both sides as positive. Another said there had been “slight progress,” while a third said mediators were still trying “to soften” the positions of Washington and Tehran. All three spoke anonymously because the discussions are taking place behind closed doors.
The diplomacy comes as the war enters its eighth month and economic pressure intensifies on both countries.
Iran’s restrictions on shipping through the Strait of Hormuz have disrupted one of the world’s most important energy corridors, while the United States has maintained a naval and economic blockade that has restricted Iran’s ability to export oil and use its ports. Previous attempts to establish reliable passage through the strait have repeatedly failed.
The emerging proposal would attempt to unwind those pressure points in stages.
Two officials who spoke to AP said the plan under discussion would begin with Iran reopening the Strait of Hormuz and the United States lifting its blockade of Iranian ports, followed by additional sanctions relief. The draft would coordinate navigation through Hormuz with a separate arrangement Tehran has been discussing with Oman, which sits directly across the strategic waterway from Iran.
Under the draft described by the officials, Iran would not impose the transit tolls Tehran had previously sought.
The Oman-linked arrangement is intended as an interim system for managing commercial traffic through a waterway that before the war functioned as an international shipping route rather than one controlled by either Iran or the United States.
Reuters reported last week that negotiators were exploring a similar phased formula in which Tehran would restore navigation through Hormuz in exchange for Washington ending its economic blockade, potentially followed by access to frozen Iranian assets and broader sanctions relief.
“The first would be to end the blockade and reopen Hormuz,” a senior Iranian official told Reuters while describing the phased approach.
Neither side wants to surrender its principal bargaining leverage first.
The United States’ blockade and sanctions are constraining Iran’s economy and oil exports, while Tehran’s ability to interfere with shipping through Hormuz has pushed energy prices higher and increased economic pressure on Washington and U.S. allies.
Trump said Saturday that he had rejected Tehran’s initial offer.
That proposal called for the strait to reopen within seven days if Washington ended its blockade of Iranian ports, released frozen Iranian assets, waived sanctions on Iranian oil sales and met additional Iranian conditions. Hostilities in the region, including fighting involving Lebanon, would also end under the proposal.
Trump nevertheless indicated Sunday that he expected further negotiations during the week, while Araghchi said no formal U.S. rejection had been transmitted to Iran through the intermediaries.
Two officials speaking to AP likewise said Washington had not formally rejected the version then being discussed through mediators, despite Trump’s public comments. They suggested his remarks could have been intended to strengthen the U.S. negotiating position.
Araghchi said Sunday that Tehran was waiting for an official answer.
“Our conditions are clear, and any move toward reopening the Strait of Hormuz is contingent on these conditions being met,” he said, adding that diplomacy remained the only way to resolve the standoff.
The seven-day timetable is one of the central differences between Iran’s latest proposal and earlier attempts to stop the war.
Araghchi told reporters during the General Assembly that Tehran would begin counting immediately after U.S. acceptance.
“The seven-day timeline will start as soon as the United States accepts this plan,” Araghchi said.
He said U.S. measures would take place during the first several days, Hormuz could reopen around the sixth day and broader negotiations could begin immediately afterward.
Iran has portrayed the accelerated timetable as a way to produce economic relief before the conflict causes additional damage.
Araghchi also told participants in a closed-door meeting during the General Assembly that Tehran had presented the proposal as potentially politically beneficial to Trump ahead of the Nov. 3 U.S. midterm elections, according to officials familiar with the session.
Oil prices illustrate the economic stakes.
Brent crude climbed about 4% Monday to approximately $108.50 a barrel as markets reacted to the continuing stalemate. Reuters reported that Brent had gained about 20% during September and was roughly 50% above its level before the war began in late February.
The disruption has affected the United States through higher fuel costs and broader inflation concerns, while Iran has faced increasingly severe restrictions on its ability to sell oil and access international markets.
Trump has repeatedly argued that U.S. pressure gives Washington the stronger negotiating position. A White House official told Reuters last week that the administration believed sanctions and the blockade had badly weakened Iran’s economy while the United States remained under no obligation to make concessions.
The White House did not immediately respond Monday to AP’s request for comment on the latest behind-the-scenes negotiations.
The U.S. is also seeking concessions beyond the shipping dispute.
A third official familiar with the negotiations told AP that Washington wants movement on Iran’s nuclear program, including renewed access for international inspectors.
The nuclear issue was included in a memorandum of understanding reached by the two sides in June. That agreement collapsed within days, although it envisioned a 60-day period for negotiating Iran’s nuclear program.
Iran’s current seven-day proposal also calls for resuming nuclear negotiations once the initial steps involving sanctions, the blockade and Hormuz are carried out. Reuters reported that Tehran’s proposal envisions talks afterward on “mutually agreed subjects.”
Iranian officials have simultaneously signaled that there are limits to what Tehran is prepared to concede.
Reuters reported Friday that an Iranian official said the country did not intend to offer new nuclear concessions simply in exchange for acceptance of the Hormuz proposal.
The war began Feb. 28 with U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran and has since expanded across the Middle East, alternating between periods of reduced fighting and renewed attacks. Iran has used missiles and drones against U.S.-aligned governments in the Gulf, while Iran-backed forces have remained active in Lebanon, Iraq and Yemen.
The latest proposal seeks a broader cessation of those hostilities rather than merely reopening Hormuz.
That has become more difficult as the conflict expands around a second major maritime chokepoint.
Iran-backed Houthi forces in Yemen have increased operations near the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, which connects the Red Sea with the Gulf of Aden. Their activity has intensified pressure on Saudi Arabia and introduced another threat to global shipping and energy markets.
Tehran maintains that the Houthis operate according to their own interests and that their conflict with neighboring Saudi Arabia should be treated separately from the U.S.-Iran war.
One Iranian official nevertheless said Tehran was prepared to assist efforts to reach an agreement between the Houthis and Saudi Arabia as part of a wider settlement.
The continued diplomacy has not stopped increasingly confrontational rhetoric from Tehran.
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei issued a rare statement Monday claiming that opposing forces had suffered “painful blows” around the Strait of Hormuz.
“Before long, the Arabian Sea, too, will be rid of them,” the statement said.
Khamenei’s statement claimed foreign forces had been pushed farther from Iranian waters and suggested Tehran expected to extend that pressure beyond Hormuz. Those assertions have not been independently verified.
For months, Washington and Tehran have attempted to use economic and military pressure to improve their negotiating positions while Gulf governments have pushed for de-escalation.
Gulf leaders meeting Trump in New York last week told U.S. officials that they opposed permanent Iranian control over Hormuz and wanted freedom of navigation restored. At the same time, regional governments have urged Washington and Tehran to avoid another broad escalation.
Qatar has emerged as one of the principal intermediaries.
Its mediators are now expected to shuttle between Araghchi and U.S. representatives rather than bringing the two sides together directly, continuing a pattern of indirect diplomacy that has characterized much of the effort to end the war.
The identities of the American officials expected to participate in the latest round had not been disclosed Monday.
Despite Trump’s public rejection, the negotiations therefore remain active. The central questions are whether Iran will reopen Hormuz before receiving the full economic relief it seeks, whether Washington will loosen its blockade before securing Iranian nuclear concessions, and whether a shipping agreement can be expanded into an end to fighting across the region.
For now, neither side has surrendered the leverage it believes brought the other back to the negotiating table, but mediators are continuing to search for an order of concessions that both governments will accept.
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