US President Donald Trump said he expects talks with Iran to resume this week, despite his rejection of a proposal submitted by Tehran to end the fighting and reopen the Strait of Hormuz.
Trump added, in an interview published by Axios on Sunday: “They want to conclude an agreement, but it is not the agreement I want,” considering that the proposal is similar to what Washington had agreed to a year ago.
The website quoted informed sources that indirect talks between Washington and Tehran may be held as of Monday.
This comes as Iran adheres to its conditions for reopening the Strait, and the Iranian Revolutionary Guard announced, on Sunday, the seizure of an American drone submarine, which it said was being used for espionage purposes.
Oil prices rose by more than one percent in early trading on Monday, after Trump rejected the Iranian proposal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, according to Reuters.
In a previous development, the Iranian Revolutionary Guard forces announced on Sunday that they had seized an American submarine operating in the Strait of Hormuz, which Tehran says it has imposed a blockade on since the outbreak of war in the Middle East.
The Revolutionary Guards' naval forces said, in a statement carried by official media, that its members were able to seize an unmanned American submarine during a "complex and coordinated operation" that included intelligence surveillance and electronic warfare.
The statement added that the drone was “operating in the Strait of Hormuz for espionage purposes,” and identified its model as the Remus 600, indicating that it had become in the possession of specialists affiliated with the Revolutionary Guard to recover the data contained in it.
Earlier this month, the Revolutionary Guard also announced the seizure of another US submarine in the strait, which is a major corridor for global oil and gas trade.
Iran says it has imposed a blockade on the Strait of Hormuz since the conflict broke out in late February, while the United States has imposed a counter-blockade on Iranian ports.
Iranian military officials said on Sunday that their country was ready for a new military confrontation, the day after Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi announced that Iran was waiting for an American response to a proposal to end the war and reopen the Strait of Hormuz.
The Iranian army spokesman, Brigadier General Mohammad Akrami Nia, said that the United States may launch a new attack on Iran due to what he described as the worsening regional situation, adding that his country is ready for confrontation and to cause greater damage to Washington, according to what Reuters reported from Iranian official media.
The Commander-in-Chief of the Iranian Army, Major General Amir Hatami, said that “insecurity in the region will affect everyone,” adding that if Iran cannot live and trade, “no one will be able to.”
Hatami renewed his threat not to allow those he described as “enemies of the homeland” to exploit the Strait of Hormuz while the Iranian people are deprived of it, he said.
Hatami conveyed to the neighboring countries, saying: “I ask all our neighbors in the region to pay attention to this matter, and to know that cooperation with America does not create security, as the security of the region lies within it and in the hands of its countries themselves.”
The official IRNA news agency quoted Brigadier General Abolfazl Shakerchi, spokesman for the Iranian Armed Forces, as saying that there is “full readiness among the people and the armed forces to confront any aggression by the United States and the Zionist entity.”
Shakerji added that the qualitative development in missiles and drones gives Iran, according to him, a strategic advantage and an element of surprise, allowing it to respond to any attack using advanced military technologies.
These statements come at a time when Tehran is awaiting an official response from Washington to the proposal it submitted to end the war and reopen the Strait of Hormuz, despite US President Donald Trump announcing his rejection of the proposal and describing it as “unacceptable.”
Trump said on Saturday that the Iranians “want to conclude an agreement to open the Strait of Hormuz immediately because they are suffering losses,” according to what Reuters reported.
'Opportunistic attempt'
In an interview with NBC on Sunday, US Ambassador to the United Nations Mike Waltz denounced what he described as an “opportunistic attempt” by Iran to “put forward demands that they already know are unacceptable.”
Waltz criticized the Iranians for repeating these demands “just to negotiate, even though we had reached a memorandum of understanding...that was quickly violated by attacks targeting international ships.”
He said, "It seems clear to me that the president does not have much confidence this time" in the negotiations, stressing that Trump kept "all options on the table."
Before Trump announced his rejection of the Iranian proposal, Iranian Foreign Minister Araqchi said that the measures that Tehran is demanding in exchange for reopening the Strait of Hormuz are “not new,” and that they are all included in the understanding agreement signed between the two sides last June.
The agreement aimed to end the conflict permanently, reopen the Strait of Hormuz, and then launch negotiations on the sensitive issue of the Iranian nuclear program.
However, it collapsed due to a dispute over the conditions of navigation in Hormuz.
The protocol stipulates an immediate cessation of hostilities on all fronts, including Lebanon, which entered the war on March 2 after Hezbollah fired missiles at Israel in response to the killing of Iranian guide Ali Khamenei on the first day of the war.
The memorandum of understanding also stipulated the release of Iran's frozen assets and the lifting of US sanctions on it.
After Trump stated his rejection of the proposal, Araqchi said that the mediators in the talks between the United States and Iran did not officially convey the United States’ rejection of the Iranian proposal.
Araqchi wrote in a post on social media: “We are waiting for the mediators to convey to us the final views, and we will make a decision based on them.”
Araqchi confirmed on Sunday that any step towards reopening the Strait of Hormuz is conditional on meeting Tehran’s demands, saying: “Our conditions are clear... and we will not back down from them,” according to what was reported by the Iranian Broadcasting Corporation.
Iranian demands include stopping hostilities in the region, including Lebanon, releasing frozen Iranian assets, lifting sanctions imposed on Iranian oil, and ending the US naval blockade, according to details reported by Agence France-Presse.
Revolutionary Guard spokesman Hussein Mohebi told Agence France-Presse, in an interview on Tuesday, that ending hostilities in Yemen is also among Tehran’s demands.
But Reuters quoted an unnamed senior Iranian official as saying that Iran will not show flexibility regarding its nuclear program even if the United States accepts the proposal.
He added that Iran will not make concessions on its rights, including uranium enrichment or shipping highly enriched uranium out of the country, according to Reuters.
The American Wall Street Journal reported that Trump had privately expressed doubts that Iran would meet his demands, and that he expected to launch a new bombing campaign on Tehran after the US midterm elections in November 2026.
Trump's statement came a few days after he described the meeting of his envoys, Witkopf and Kushner, with the Iranian delegation in New York, as "productive."
The US Ambassador to NATO, Matthew Whitaker, supported Trump's position rejecting the Iranian proposal.
Speaking to Fox News on Saturday, he said that Iran had offered “half-measures” and “fake deals to appear good on the world stage.”
Treasury Secretary Scott Besent said on Saturday that the economic sanctions imposed by the United States were beginning to take their toll on Iran.
Whitaker wrote on the X platform that Türkiye, Oman, and the United Arab Emirates have suspended flights belonging to a number of Iranian airlines, and some banks in the Emirates and Turkey have also stopped their transactions with Iran.
The Trump administration imposed an economic blockade on Iran, in an attempt by the White House to use economic pressure with the aim of forcing Tehran to stop attacks on ships in the Strait of Hormuz.
But Brigadier General Shakerji told IRNA on Saturday that any ship that attempts to cross the strait outside the approved routes will be exposed to danger.
The Iranian delegation returned from participating in the United Nations General Assembly, which witnessed a meeting between the Iranian delegation and the American delegation at the level of diplomats following the talks.
Before leaving New York, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said, in an interview on the Qatari Al Jazeera network, that Iran “will not surrender to pressure and threats” and that “dialogue is the way to resolve issues.”
During a government meeting on Sunday following his visit to New York, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian defended continuing the dialogue with Washington, despite what he described as his country being subjected to attacks during previous negotiating rounds.
He said, according to the official website of the Iranian presidency: “Every time we sat at the negotiating table, they attacked us; however, we will continue the dialogue,” stressing that attacks and pressures will not force Iran and its people to surrender.
Pezeshkian urged the ministers to prepare for more pressure, and to expand the use of border trade, neighboring countries, and local resources to meet the needs of citizens.
Pezeshkian accused Arab countries, which he did not name, of allowing their bases and airspace to be used to launch attacks on Iran, saying that they should have prevented attacking aircraft from crossing their airspace.
Today marks the second anniversary of the assassination of the former Secretary-General of Hezbollah, Hassan Nasrallah, who was a strong ally of Iran, in air strikes carried out by the Israeli army on its headquarters in Beirut on September 27, 2024.
The head of the Islamic Media Coordination Council in Tehran Province announced the organization of nightly popular gatherings in various cities of the province, to commemorate the second anniversary of Nasrallah’s assassination, according to what IRNA reported.
Southern Lebanon is still witnessing raids and bombings, which the Israeli army says target infrastructure and military sites of Hezbollah.
The Israeli army did not withdraw from the positions it occupied in southern Lebanon after the end of the first round of the war in November 2024.
It strengthened the spread of its forces and their advance to other regions after the outbreak of the second round of the war, when Hezbollah launched six missiles at the dawn of March 2 in retaliation for the killing of the Guide of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Ali Khamenei, and in response to Israeli violations, according to what was announced in a statement.
Despite Iran's demand, since the first announcement of a ceasefire in April, to stop the war on all fronts (including Gaza and Lebanon), and its threat to resume the war if this condition is not met, the Lebanon front has not witnessed any comprehensive calm.
Iran was able to achieve its demand to stop the bombing of Beirut and its southern suburbs after it responded militarily to the bombing of the southern suburbs on June 7, but it did not achieve its conditions of stopping the war in Lebanon and Israeli withdrawal from its south.
The Lebanese state, with the approval of the President of the Republic and the Prime Minister, engaged in direct negotiations with the Israeli side under American sponsorship, but it has not succeeded to date in imposing a ceasefire and the withdrawal of the Israeli army, nor in reaching a mechanism to disarm Hezbollah, which is what Israel requires.
In June, Lebanon and Israel reached a framework agreement under which Hezbollah was supposed to disarm and the Lebanese army would deploy in specific areas in southern Lebanon in conjunction with Israel’s withdrawal, according to Agence France-Presse. But progress in implementing it has faltered to a large extent, while Israel warns that it will maintain its forces as long as the party poses a threat.
The United Nations announced on June 15 that the number of people displaced by the war in Lebanon reached about 1.4 million people.
On September 6, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees announced that 850,000 displaced people had returned to their areas of origin, and that the current number of displaced people was approximately 360,000, including at least 22,000 people residing in collective shelters.
