Iran keeps seven-day Hormuz offer open, awaits US agreement

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said on Sunday, October 18, that Tehran's seven-day proposal for reopening the Strait of Hormuz remains open to the United States. Speaking to Iranian media in Baghdad, where he was attending an Organisation of Islamic Cooperation meeting, he said the waterway could reopen within six days if Washington accepted Iran's conditions, with negotiations beginning the following day.

The Economic Times reported that Araqchi said Iran was reviewing US comments on the proposal, first presented in mid-September after an interim ceasefire broke down. His remarks described a conditional timetable—not an agreement to reopen the strait or a newly announced deadline for Washington.

Sanctions and blockade among Tehran's conditions

The demands identified in the report include lifting the US blockade on Iranian ports, removing US sanctions on Iran's oil exports and ending hostilities across regional fronts. Iran has set seven conditions, although the report does not enumerate all of them.

Iran's security chief said last week that negotiations had stalled because Washington had not addressed every condition. That explanation is Tehran's account of the impasse; the report does not include a US response to that specific allegation.

Araqchi also accused Washington of lacking good faith while maintaining that the route to reopening the waterway remained available under Iran's proposal.

Nuclear talks divide the two sides

A central disagreement concerns the order of negotiations. Washington wants Iran's nuclear programme addressed at the outset, while Tehran says the first priority should be reopening Hormuz and restoring security for shipping.

US Vice President JD Vance said earlier this month that Iran would need to substantially reduce its uranium enrichment capacity to meet American demands and bring the countries' eight-month war to an end, according to the report.

The stakes extend beyond the negotiating parties: before the war, the strait carried about one-fifth of global trade in oil and liquefied natural gas, the report said. Araqchi's announcement sets out Iran's proposed route to reopening, but does not establish current shipping conditions or confirm US acceptance.