Iran Receives U.S. Counterproposal After Trump Rejects Seven-Day Ceasefire Plan

Ceasefire talks stall

Iran said it had received a U.S. counterproposal to a seven-day ceasefire plan that Trump rejected, and Iranian officials and state media said Wednesday that Tehran was considering the response. Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps spokesperson said Tuesday that the only way the war would end was if Washington admitted defeat and U.S. forces left the region. Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi left New York on Tuesday after telling state-run Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB) that he expected an official response to Tehran’s proposal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz by the end of the day.

Iran’s proposal, as described through Qatari mediation, would reopen the Strait of Hormuz within seven days, with wider peace talks beginning only then, while the United States wanted a deal that resolves all outstanding issues, particularly Tehran’s nuclear programme, in one go. Iran’s military also published a “letter to the American people” calling on U.S. nationals to protest President Trump and accusing his administration of using Iran’s nuclear program as a ruse to “plunder Iran’s wealth.”

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Hormuz attacks and oil

A British maritime agency said Wednesday that unknown projectiles struck three ships in the Strait of Hormuz the previous day, and UKMTO said a crude oil tanker and two other vessels had each "been struck by an unknown projectile." The Strait of Hormuz is at the center of the war between Iran and the United States, and Tehran had been attempting to block the passage of commercial ships by firing on vessels it accuses of unauthorized crossings. Trump rejected an Iranian offer under which Tehran would reopen the strait in return for Washington lifting its naval blockade, waiving sanctions, releasing an estimated $12bn in frozen Iranian assets and enforcing a wider regional ceasefire that includes Lebanon.

Physical supply data showed Middle East crude exports rebounded to around their highest level since the war began in February, and Kpler data showed total clearance through the strait was 10,591 kilobarrels a day on Saturday. West Texas Intermediate futures settled below $93 a barrel and oil ticked higher as easing supply disruptions collided with strong demand for physical barrels, while TD Securities strategist Ryan McKay said, “Without a concrete deal or conclusion to the conflict, the market is quickly fading initial headline reactions.”

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Nuclear and regional stakes

Iran’s Supreme National Security Council Secretary Major General Mohsen Rezaei told Shahin Mustafayev, Azerbaijan’s deputy prime minister, that “Trump is caught in a quagmire where he can neither negotiate nor fight,” and he said Iran’s conditions had been conveyed to the United States.

Rezaei said the U.S. and Israeli attack on Iran was “against all international laws,” and he maintained that Iran “powerfully defended itself” with “hundreds of drone and missile operations” launched against U.S. and Israeli assets across the region.

Iran’s proposal would tie reopening the Strait of Hormuz to steps that include lifting the naval blockade and sanctions on Iranian oil, with nuclear talks beginning only after the strait reopened.

Norway-based Iran Human Rights (IHR) and the U.S.-based Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI) shared an audio message from Mahboubeh Shahbani, 33, in which she said, “I call on everyone - the public, the U.N., human rights organizations. Not just for me but for all the others whose sentences have been upheld and who have spent months sleeping in fear and stress at night,” and she added, “I call on them to do something.”

A group of former government officials called on Iran’s government, parliament and the Supreme National Security Council to “while suspending cooperation, place the legal process for withdrawal from the NPT on the agenda and initiate it as soon as possible,” arguing that continued membership no longer served Iran’s national interests after military attacks on Iran’s nuclear facilities and Western pressure.

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