Iran Offers to Reopen Hormuz if U.S. Lifts Blockade and Ends War

Iran has offered to end its chokehold on the Strait of Hormuz if the United States lifts its blockade of Iranian ports and ends the war, with discussion of Iran’s nuclear program postponed to a later phase, CBS News reported, matching what two regional officials told the Associated Press on Monday. Neither side has made the terms public, and NPR said it had not confirmed the details of the proposal. Axios reported the offer first, according to CBS News, and the AP said Pakistan passed it to Washington.

CBS News reported that President Trump is unlikely to accept it because it does not address the nuclear issue, and the AP made the same assessment, noting it would leave unresolved the disagreements that led the U.S. and Israel to start the war on Feb. 28. Mr. Trump has said a major reason for the war was to deny Iran nuclear weapons, and the U.S. wants Iran’s stockpile of highly enriched uranium removed, the AP noted. Iran insists its nuclear program is peaceful.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio was asked about the proposal on Fox News and said the nuclear question “still remains the core issue here.” “There’s no doubt in my mind that at some point in the future if this radical clerical regime remains in charge in Iran, they will decide they want a nuclear weapon,” he said, as reported by CBS News.

The blockade is meant to keep Iran from selling oil and, the AP wrote, could eventually force Tehran to shut in production because it has nowhere to store the crude. The strait’s closure, meanwhile, has pressured Mr. Trump with high gasoline prices ahead of the midterm elections, and it has hurt Gulf allies that export through the waterway, according to the AP. About one-fifth of the world’s traded oil and gas passes through it in peacetime. Brent crude traded around $108 a barrel at points Monday, CBS News and the AP reported, and the AP said that was nearly 50 percent above its level at the start of the war.

Iran’s diplomacy continued. Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, who made two stops in Pakistan and visited Oman over the weekend, landed in St. Petersburg on Monday where he met Russian President Vladimir Putin, the AP and NPR reported. A regional official involved in mediation told the AP, according to the AP and not independently confirmed, that Iran wants Oman’s support for a mechanism to collect tolls from vessels using the strait, and insists the blockade end before new talks. Mr. Trump said Saturday that Iran sent a “much better” proposal after he canceled an envoys’ trip to Pakistan, without elaborating, the AP said.

The ceasefire Mr. Trump extended last week has largely halted fighting but has not produced a settlement, the AP said. CBS News reported that Mr. Trump announced a three-week extension of the Israel-Lebanon ceasefire, though Hezbollah has rejected the Israeli-Lebanese negotiations and exchanges of fire have continued.