Trump Administration Rejects Iran Proposal To End War, Reopen Strait of Hormuz Without Nuclear Program

A new Iranian proposal aimed at ending the war and reopening the Strait of Hormuz is colliding with the Trump administration’s insistence that any agreement must address Iran’s nuclear program from the outset.

“President Donald Trump and his national security team on Monday discussed Iran's proposal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz if the U”

CNBC

NewsNation reported that the Trump administration seemed unlikely Tuesday to accept Iran’s offer to end the war and reopen the Strait of Hormuz if the U.S. lifts its blockade, describing the proposal as postponing discussions on the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program.

CNBC

NBC News similarly said the United States showed little immediate enthusiasm for a new Iranian proposal that would end the war and reopen the Strait of Hormuz “without resolving the impasse over the Islamic Republic's nuclear program.”

In a Fox News interview, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said, “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.”

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters, “The president’s red lines with respect to Iran have been made very, very clear,” and added, “I wouldn’t say they’re considering it.”

Reuters and other reporting cited by JNS.org said a U.S. official told Reuters Trump was unhappy with the proposal because it did not address Iran’s nuclear program.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters, “I will confirm the president has met with his national-security team this morning.”

The negotiations are playing out around the Strait of Hormuz, where the U.S. blockade and Iran’s control of passage are treated as leverage points with immediate economic consequences.

NBC News reported that the Iranian proposal would focus on reopening Hormuz and ending the war while tabling “thorny nuclear talks until a later date,” and said the strait’s closure has “rattled the global economy.”

Fox News

NewsNation and NBC News both tied the diplomatic standoff to rising energy costs, with NBC News reporting that “National gas price averages hit a new high amid the war of $4.18 early Tuesday, up from $4.11 a day earlier” and that “Brent crude, reached a three-week high above $111 a barrel.”

The U.S. military posture described by NBC News is aimed at enforcing the blockade of Iranian ports and coastal areas, noting that “The U.S. military is using more than 100 fighter and surveillance aircraft, two carrier strike groups and more than a dozen ships to enforce the blockade of Iranian ports and coastal areas.”

NBC News also said the U.S. has been interdicting ships as they enter the Gulf of Oman after they go through the Strait of Hormuz, and that “The U.S. military has stopped and redirected at least 39 ships, according to U.S. Central Command.”

In parallel, the Fox News interview quotes carried by CNBC and JNS.org show Rubio framing the dispute as about international waterways rather than a general shipping ban, with Rubio saying, “They cannot normalize, nor can we tolerate them trying to normalize, a system in which the Iranians decide who gets to use an international waterway and how much you have to pay them to use it.”

The New Yorker’s interview transcript with Ali Vaez described the “double blockade” as creating a “pretty tenuous situation” where “every interdiction, every warning shot, every seizure of vessels, could become a trigger for a wider relapse into conflict.”

While the diplomatic debate centers on Hormuz and nuclear sequencing, the sources also place the negotiations amid a widening record of casualties and humanitarian strain across multiple theaters.

NewsNation said that “Since the war began, at least 3,375 people have been killed in Iran and at least 2,521 people in Lebanon,” and it added that “Another 23 people have been killed in Israel and more than a dozen in Gulf Arab states.”

It further reported that “Sixteen Israeli soldiers in Lebanon, 13 U.S. service members in the region and six U.N. peacekeepers in southern Lebanon have been killed.”

United Nations General Assembly President Annalena Baerbock told reporters during a visit Tuesday to New Delhi that “Every effort to come to a ceasefire is highly needed,” while warning that the escalation is “diverting attention from humanitarian crises in Gaza.”

In the same report, Doctors Without Borders accused Israel of “systemically depriving” people in Gaza of water and described it as a “campaign of collective punishment,” saying Israel has destroyed or damaged about 90% of Gaza’s water and sanitation infrastructure.

MSF emergency manager Claire San Filippo said, “Israeli authorities know that without water life ends, yet they have deliberately and systematically obliterated water infrastructure in Gaza – while consistently blocking water-related supplies from entering,” and the report said COGAT rejected the accusations and said the water supply “consistently exceeds humanitarian thresholds.”

NewsNation also described Israeli airstrikes hitting the villages of Chakra, Tebnine and Kafra in southern Lebanon on Tuesday, and said a drone strike hit a motorcycle in Mansouri with “no immediate information about possible casualties.”

The sources present sharply different voices on what the U.S. and Iran are doing and what the proposal would mean.

Rubio, speaking to Fox News, insisted that the nuclear question is central and that any deal must “definitively prevents them from sprinting towards a nuclear weapon at any point,” while also saying, “The nuclear question is the reason why we’re in this in the first place,” in the Fox News interview carried by ynetnews.

Masrawy

Leavitt’s messaging to reporters emphasized that the president’s “red lines” are “very, very clear,” and she said, “I wouldn’t say they’re considering it,” even as she confirmed the proposal was being discussed.

In the same reporting stream, Rubio rejected a definition of opening Hormuz that would allow Iran to coordinate or charge, saying, “If 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,’ that’s not opening the straits.”

On the other side, Russia’s UN ambassador Vassily Nebenzia defended Iran at a UN Security Council meeting, saying, “In times of war, a coastal state that is under attack may limit navigation in its territorial waters for the purpose of security.”

Nebenzia also accused Western countries of hypocrisy, saying, “Unlike pirates who raise their black flags with a skull and crossbones in their vessels, Western countries are attempting to conceal their lawless actions with references to unilateral coercive measures,” and added, “This is merely a fig leaf, the purpose of which is to conceal the fact that the [European Union] is engaged in blatant robbery at sea.”

The Fox News and CNBC reporting also included Trump’s own framing of the dispute, with Trump saying Iran’s closure move was “a total violation of the ceasefire agreement” and threatening escalation if no deal is reached by striking “all power plants and bridges” in Iran.

Different outlets portray the same negotiation moment with different emphasis, from whether the U.S. is close to accepting a deal to whether Trump’s public posture is undermining talks.

“A brittle ceasefire currently exists United States and Iran, but any hope of a longterm agreement has stalled”

Mondoweiss

CNBC described the proposal as being discussed Monday, with Leavitt confirming, “The meeting may be ongoing,” and stating, “the proposal was being discussed,” while also saying she was not claiming the U.S. was considering it.

Mondoweiss

The New Yorker’s transcript with Ali Vaez argued that the ceasefire is “inherently unstable” and that “the double blockade” creates a “high-stakes game of chicken,” where “both sides are hoping that the economic pressure will force the other side to blink first.”

Al Bayan, in Arabic, described a weekend period when it said the U.S. and Iran appeared close to an agreement, but then said Trump “did what his aides had repeatedly refused to do,” including negotiating “through the press” and posting on social media, while also citing CNN reporting that Trump’s public statements harmed negotiations.

Al Bayan also described a reported Iranian position that Iran had agreed to controversial demands, including “agreeing to hand over the enriched uranium,” while saying Iranian officials publicly rejected many of these statements.

Fox News reporting carried a Reuters-based account that Trump “doesn't love” the proposal and that “He doesn't love the proposal,” with a U.S. official telling Reuters the offer did not address Iran’s nuclear program.

Mondoweiss framed the broader strategic logic by quoting German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and by presenting a discussion in which Iran does not feel compelled to compromise, including the claim that “Iran believes time is on its side” and that the U.S. blockade has “many holes in it.”

The sources portray the next steps as hinging on whether the U.S. will shift its blockade posture and whether mediators can narrow gaps quickly, with multiple accounts pointing to urgency.

NewsNation said the offer emerged Monday as Iran Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi visited Russia, and it reported that it was unclear what assistance Moscow might offer now, while also stating that the White House said Trump’s national security team discussed the offer and Trump would address it later.

CNBC said Leavitt told reporters the meeting “may be ongoing” and that the president would address the subject publicly “very soon,” while also noting that Trump had vowed not to lift the blockade until a deal is “100% complete.”

JNS.org reported that under the Islamic Republic’s latest proposal, the regime would reopen the Strait of Hormuz in exchange for a long-term ceasefire or permanent end to the war, and that nuclear negotiations would only start at a later stage after the U.S. military lifts its naval blockade of Iranian ports.

Reuters-based reporting cited by JNS.org said Trump was unhappy with the proposal and that CNN cited a source saying the president was unlikely to accept it because it could remove a key piece of American leverage.

Masrawy’s report quoted Rubio saying the U.S. can raise sanctions and pressure, and it included Rubio’s warning that “The Strait of Hormuz is an economic nuclear weapon that Iran is trying to use against the world.”

The New Yorker’s Ali Vaez suggested that the ceasefire’s instability and the “game of chicken” dynamic mean neither side is likely to fold on economic pressure anytime soon, arguing that both sides would have to “return to the table” and accept “a compromise.”