Trump Rejects Iranian Proposal to Reopen Strait of Hormuz

US President Donald Trump said on Saturday he had rejected an Iranian proposal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz and bring about an end to hostilities.

"I reject their proposal ... I rejected their deal," Trump told reporters at the White House in Washington, DC.

Iran had proposed an initiative aimed at reopening the strategic waterway at the UN General Assembly in New York, which it said could put an end to fighting within seven days.

Tehran said the proposal had been transmitted to Washington via Qatari mediators.

What did Trump say?

"They want to make a deal to open the Hormuz Strait immediately because they're losing so badly," said Trump, claiming: "We're winning tremendously."

Earlier, a US official had told Reuters that discussions with Iran, conducted through mediators, were "positive and constructive."

But the Wall Street Journal reported that Trump was skeptical that Tehran would meet his demands. He reportedly told staff that a renewed bombing ​campaign ​is likely following the November US midterm elections.

"They want to make a deal and I think that's fine," said Trump. "What they want to do is ​immediately open the Hormuz Strait ... because they have no money coming in, because they get their money from the Hormuz Strait."

Iranian ports are currently under a US blockade as Washington attempts to pressure Tehran into lifting its blockade on the Strait of Hormuz. The key waterway remains largely closed to international shipping despite claims by Trump that the US is control of it.

"I'd like to make a deal, too," said Trump. "But that deal would not be acceptable."

Hours earlier, the US President had posted an image on social media calling the Strait of Hormuz the "Trump Strait."

Strait of Hormuz: What was the Iranian proposal?

Meanwhile, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, who was on his way back to Tehran after attending the UN General Assembly in New York, told CBS News the proposal had been developed "in coordination" with Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei.

He said the process would have begun "from the very day they accept it."

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, who met with Trump's envoy Steve Witkoff earlier in the week, said the plan had foreseen a cessation of all hostilities across the Middle East, including in Lebanon, with the Strait of Hormuz to be reopened on the seventh day of the truce.

He said the conditions were the same as those laid out in a memorandum of understanding signed with the US earlier this year, which called for the release of frozen Iranian assets, the lifting of sanctions on Iranian oil and an end to the US naval blockade.

Edited by: Wesley Dockery