Iran Offers to Reopen Strait of Hormuz Within Seven Days in New US Proposal
If confirmed and accepted, the offer would mark the first concrete timeline attached to any Iranian proposal to end the Hormuz closure, with negotiations potentially moving to New York this week.
An unnamed Iranian official told Reuters on Tuesday that Tehran is prepared to reopen the Strait of Hormuz within seven days, provided the United States reduces its military pressure on Iran and eases the blockade it has enforced on Iranian ports. The disclosure represents the most specific timeline Iran has attached to any offer related to the strait's status, according to Al Bawaba, which reported the Reuters-sourced account.
The official said Iran submitted a new formal proposal to Washington and indicated that discussions could take place in New York, where the United Nations General Assembly session brings senior diplomats from both countries into proximity. The venue and timing would be consistent with the pattern of back-channel contacts that have occurred on the sidelines of past UNGA sessions, though no US confirmation of the proposal's receipt had been made public as of the time of this report.
The Strait of Hormuz is the waterway connecting the Persian Gulf to the Gulf of Oman. According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, roughly 20 percent of global oil trade and approximately one-third of the world's liquefied natural gas passes through the strait annually. Any sustained closure of the route directly affects global energy supply chains and commodity pricing.
Iran has periodically threatened to close the Strait of Hormuz during periods of heightened tension with the United States and its regional partners, dating back to at least the early 1980s. The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy has the operational capacity to deploy mines, fast-attack vessels, and shore-based anti-ship missiles along the strait's approximately 33-kilometer-wide navigable channel, according to assessments published by the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
The Iranian official's reference to US military pressure and a blockade on Iranian ports points to the conditions that preceded the current standoff. The United States has maintained a significant naval presence in the Persian Gulf through the U.S. Fifth Fleet, headquartered in Bahrain. Washington has also enforced sanctions on Iranian oil exports, which function in practice as a partial blockade on Iran's ability to sell petroleum on international markets.
The mechanism described in the Iranian proposal is a conditional exchange: Iran would use its ability to reopen or maintain closure of the strait as leverage to obtain a reduction in US military and economic pressure. Whether the US views this as a workable framework is not known from the available sourcing. A State Department or National Security Council statement would be required to establish Washington's formal position on the new proposal.
The New York diplomatic channel, if used, would likely involve Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, both of whom are expected to attend UNGA events this week. Whether either official has agreed to a bilateral meeting is not confirmed in the available source material.
The offer comes at a moment when energy markets have already priced in elevated risk from the Hormuz situation. Brent crude futures have reflected a geopolitical risk premium throughout the period of heightened tension, though specific price figures at the time of publication are not available in the sourced material and cannot be stated without verification.
Historical precedent for resolving Hormuz-related standoffs through diplomacy exists. During the 2019-2020 period of maximum pressure under the first Trump administration, Iran and the United States engaged in indirect talks through intermediaries including Oman and Switzerland, which serves as the US protecting power in Iran. Whether any similar intermediary is involved in the current round of contacts is not specified in the available reporting.
The seven-day window cited by the Iranian official creates a verifiable benchmark. If no reopening occurs by approximately September 29, 2026, that would indicate either that talks failed, that the proposal was not accepted, or that the terms were not met. The Al Bawaba report does not include an Iranian government confirmation beyond the single unnamed official, meaning the proposal's official status within Tehran's decision-making structure remains unclear without further sourcing from Iranian state media or a formal government statement.