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Iran has proposed a deal with the United States to reach an agreement on reopening the Strait of Hormuz and ending the war, while delaying negotiations on Tehran’s nuclear program to a later stage, Axios reported on April 27, citing an American official and two sources with knowledge of the details.
The offer, reportedly conveyed via Pakistani mediators, comes amid deadlocked talks and as Iran’s leadership fails to present a united stance on the nuclear concessions it is willing to make.
Ebrahim Azizi, head of the national security commission in Iran’s parliament, revealed later that the proposal would make the Islamic Republic the authority responsible for the Strait of Hormuz — a checkpoint for 20 percent of global oil and liquid natural gas shipments.
The official told state television that Iranian armed forces are already in control of the strait and are seeking to prohibit the passage of “hostile vessels.”
He also said that the proposed law states that financial gains from the waterway should be only paid in the local rial currency.
Speaking in an interview with Fox News, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio stated that the Iranian proposal is not acceptable to the U.S. or others.
“What they mean by opening the straits is, yes, the straits are open, as long as you coordinate with Iran, get our permission, or we’ll blow you up and you pay us,” Rubio said.
“That’s not opening the straits. Those are international waterways. They cannot normalize, nor can we tolerate them trying to normalize, a system in which the Iranians decide who gets to use them,” he added.
Despite these remarks, U.S. President Donald Trump has discussed the proposal with his top national security aides, according to White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt.
“The meeting may be ongoing, maybe not, but the proposal was being discussed,” she said. “The president’s red lines with respect to Iran have been made very, very clear.”
“I wouldn’t say they were considering it,” Leavitt added, regarding an Iranian suggestion to reopen the Strait of Hormuz in exchange for ending the U.S. blockade. “I would say there’s a discussion.”
Meanwhile, Reuters reported that at least seven ships — mainly dry bulk vessels — have crossed the Strait of Hormuz in the past 24 hours.
The number represents a fraction of the average 140 daily passages before the start of the American-Israeli war on Iran on February 28.
U.S. forces have redirected 37 vessels since a blockade was imposed on Iran on April 13, according to the Central Command. Six Iranian tankers returned to Iranian ports and sailed back through Hormuz in recent days with some 10.5 million barrels of oil, according to satellite analysis from TankerTrackers.com cited by Reuters.
All in all, an agreement between the U.S. and Iran remains highly unlikely. The U.S. military is already gearing up for another round of fighting. However, it is possible that Trump will simply leave on the blockade without resuming the war on the Islamic Republic in a bid to break the will of Tehran.
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