Iran proposes reopening Hormuz within seven days

NEW YORK

A gull flies overhead as a boy stands with his bicycle on a beach overlooking commercial vessels anchored in the Strait of Hormuz off Bandar Abbas, Iran, Monday, Sept. 7, 2026. (AP File Photo)

Iran has submitted a proposal to the United States to end their war and reopen the Strait of Hormuz within seven days, its foreign minister told media outlets in New York on Sept. 24.

“If certain conditions are met, the strait will be open within seven days and talks will start,” Abbas Araghchi, who is in the U.S. for the U.N. General Assembly, told media outlets including the New York Times and The Guardian.

Araghchi also met for talks on Sept. 22 with U.S. President Donald Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff.

Iran has previously set out seven conditions for ending the war and reopening the strait.

According to Araghchi, as quoted by the New York Times, the latest plan calls for a cessation of all hostilities in the Middle East for seven days, including in Lebanon.

It also calls for the release of frozen Iranian assets estimated to be worth at least $12 billion, as well as the lifting of sanctions on Iranian oil and an end to the U.S. naval blockade of Iran.

On the seventh day of the truce, Iran would reopen Hormuz.

Araghchi said he was waiting for a U.S. response to the plan and maintained that China supported the proposal.

During the same meeting with the media outlets, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian denied accusations that Iran was trying to kill the president, saying it has “never been the position [of the Iranian government], overtly or covertly, to seek to assassinate” Trump or his family members.

The Iranian president also said in the session that Iran wants a deal, but that any agreement was not related to the timing of the U.S. midterms.

During the briefing, Pezeshkian also spoke about recent meetings with Iran’s Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei, who has not appeared in public since the war began, saying the leader was in “quite good health.”

Questions over Khamenei’s health have intensified in recent months following reports that he suffered serious injuries in the U.S.-Israeli strike that killed his father and predecessor, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, at the start of the conflict in February.

Pezeshkian said he had observed no significant health problems or physical signs of concern during his meetings with the supreme leader. He added that their latest face-to-face meeting was held about a month ago and lasted roughly seven hours.

The U.S. and Iran signed a memorandum of understanding in June that aimed to end the war, reopen the strait and launch talks on Iran’s nuclear program.

But the deal broke down shortly afterwards when Iran fired on commercial ships in Hormuz that it accused of deviating from its approved route through the waterway.

Iran requires ships to obtain authorization before passage, citing security and sovereignty reasons.