People ride on motorcycles as they participate in a march in Tehran, Iran, on Sept. 25.Majid Asgaripour/Reuters
Iran said on Wednesday it had received a U.S. response to its latest proposal to resurrect the collapsed ceasefire in the Gulf, days after U.S. President Donald Trump said he had rejected it.
Iran’s allies were celebrating on Wednesday after Washington withdrew the last of its forces from neighbouring Iraq, where 4,500 US troops died in the biggest U.S. war of the century. More than 200,000 Iraqi civilians were killed in chaos unleashed after U.S. forces toppled dictator Saddam Hussein in 2003.
Tehran views the pullout as a victory for its “axis of resistance” of allied armed groups, and a step toward its aim of driving U.S. forces out of the region.
With the U.S.-Israeli war against Iran now entering its eighth month, Iran put forward a proposal last week under which the United States would lift its blockade of Iranian ports and Iran would reopen the disrupted Strait of Hormuz within seven days.
Trump said on Sunday he had rejected the proposal, although Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said Tehran had not received a formal rejection. In a post on X on Wednesday, an Iranian government spokesperson said Araqchi had conveyed a U.S. response to the Iranian government.
Iran says its plan aims to restore an interim agreement which collapsed weeks after it was signed by Trump and Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian in June.
U.S., Iran resume indirect talks with mediators on deal to end fighting
Last week, Qatari mediators shuttled between U.S. and Iranian envoys in New York on the sidelines of a meeting of the United Nations, the first proximity talks between the warring sides since the ceasefire unravelled.
An official briefed on the talks, who is not Iranian and spoke to Reuters on condition of anonymity, said the Qataris had briefed Araqchi on the U.S. response on Tuesday when Araqchi stopped off in Doha on his way home from New York. According to the official, the sides largely agree about the steps that are needed but still disagree about the order in which to take them.
Iran wants an eventual deal to grant it control over the Strait of Hormuz, the world’s most important oil shipping route, which runs past its coast.
Shipping through the strait has increased in recent weeks, with shippers charging high fees to brave the risk of attacks. But flows of crude oil, refined products and natural gas remain substantially disrupted. In the latest incidents, Britain’s UKMTO maritime security body reported on Wednesday that two ships had been hit by projectiles the previous day.
Analysis: Trump putting Iran war on hold until after midterm elections
At home in the United States, polls show the Iran war was unpopular from the outset. The disruption to global energy supplies and resulting surge in fuel prices have hurt Trump’s Republicans, trying to hang on to both houses of Congress in legislative elections five weeks away.
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps urged Americans on Tuesday to vote out Trump’s allies.
“Remove from power the evil, deceitful, and violent politicians who are responsible for America’s current state,” they wrote in a 26-page letter to U.S. voters. “Make sure your politicians understand that the world has changed.”
The war has intensified an economic crisis inside Iran, but Tehran has retained the ability to strike its neighbours and menace ships in the strait, where a fifth of global oil transited before the war. Trump says the war will be over soon and Iran will ultimately surrender.
“I don’t know if they are going to give up yet but they’ll give up,” he told reporters on Tuesday. “They are doing very poorly.”