Iran pushes to open Strait of Hormuz within seven days

The Iranian government has reiterated its previous proposal to the US to open the Strait of Hormuz within seven days. “The seven-day period begins as soon as the United States accepts this plan,” Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi told reporters at the UN in New York on Friday. The decision now lies in Washington.

The steps that the USA must take to achieve this are “not new,” emphasized Araghtschi. “They are all already included in the framework agreement signed with Washington in June.” On Tuesday, the Iranian foreign minister sent US envoy Steve Witkoff seven conditions for an end to the war and the reopening of the strait.

According to Iranian information, these include the cessation of hostilities in the region, the release of frozen Iranian assets, the lifting of sanctions against Iranian oil and an end to the US port blockade.

Foreign Minister Araghchi further stated that Tehran “does not accept any coercion, threats or intimidation.” Iran will not “give up its sovereign rights under pressure.” If Washington shows “serious interest in an agreement and the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz,” “everything is prepared.”

Meanwhile, Iranian President Massoud Peseschkian said Tehran wanted to return to the framework agreement agreed with the US in June. On the online service

Peseschkian had previously stated that he saw the decision to end the Iran war as being made by the USA. “We don’t want to continue,” Peseschkian told US broadcaster Fox News in an interview broadcast on Thursday. “America has to decide whether it wants to end this or not,” he said, according to the broadcaster’s translation.

An agreement was reached between Washington and Tehran in June with the aim of ending hostilities between the two countries. The war began at the end of February with US-Israeli attacks on Iran. A ceasefire agreed in April initially ended almost 40 days of violent attacks, while the June agreement was intended to pave the way to a permanent end to the conflict.

At the beginning of July, however, the agreement collapsed, with both sides accusing each other of violations. A central point of contention is the Strait of Hormuz. Iran has largely blocked the strait, which is important for world trade, since the beginning of the war, and the USA, for its part, imposed a naval blockade of Iranian ports.