President Trump greets the media on the South Lawn of the White House September 26, 2026 in Washington, D.C. Trump travels to Knoxville, Tennessee to attend the University of Tennessee football game against the University of Texas College.
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Aaron Schwartz/Getty Images North America
President Trump said Saturday that he rejects an Iranian plan to reopen the Strait of Hormuz.
Trump said the deal “would not be acceptable,” speaking to reporters as he left the White House, without offering further explanation.
“I also like to make a deal,” he said. “But I’m not – this deal wouldn’t be acceptable.”
“They want to make a deal to open the strait immediately because they are losing a lot,” Trump added.
Iran made the proposal, which also called for the resumption of negotiations between the United States and Iran, during meetings of the United Nations General Assembly in New York this week.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi told reporters on Friday that Iran had transmitted to the United States, via Qatar, a “concrete seven-day plan” to reopen the strait.
Iran initially closed the strait after the attack by the United States and Israel on February 28. The repeated shutdowns have caused major disruptions to global oil supplies.
“If the necessary conditions are met, the strait can be reopened and normal maritime passage restored within seven days,” Araghchi said on Friday. “The choice now rests with the United States.”
The Iranian proposal is similar to a “memorandum of understanding” agreed to by the United States and Iran last June. This would have temporarily ended the fighting and resumed ceasefire talks.
The memorandum of understanding allowed Iran to free itself from the US naval blockade. The United States eased sanctions and released frozen Iranian assets. In return, Iran promised not to seek nuclear weapons and said it would reopen the Strait of Hormuz.
The June deal collapsed after disputes over the memo’s vague wording, including language around who would control the strait. The United States and Iran resumed strikes soon after.
“The steps the United States should take are not new,” Araghchi said. “They are all already in the MoU. They are already under the commitments of the United States. So we see no difficulty in implementing them.”
In a pre-recorded interview with CBS to be broadcast on Sunday, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said Iran would honor its commitments and that the United States must show “that it has no intention of overthrowing our government or our administration.”
“If the United States agrees to do this, everything will go back to the way it was,” Pezeshkian told CBS. “Because right now it is the United States that is blocking our way, and naturally Iran has also blocked the road on its side. These are things that both sides need to open up first; then we can sit at the negotiating table and discuss other outstanding issues.”
Pezeshkian said that if the United States accepted Iran’s proposal to reopen the strait and resume nuclear negotiations, Iran would allow U.N. nuclear inspectors into the country.
NPR’s Hadeel Al-Shalchi and Emily Feng contributed reporting.
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