President Donald Trump has rejected Iran’s seven-day proposal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz and restart nuclear negotiations, while telling aides he expects U.S. bombing of Iran to resume after the November midterm elections, according to The Wall Street Journal.
The reported decision cuts across a diplomatic push Tehran brought to New York this week, where Iranian officials offered an accelerated timetable linking the reopening of Hormuz to U.S. sanctions relief, an end to the naval blockade of Iranian ports and renewed nuclear talks.
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U.S. President Donald Trump addresses the 81st United Nations General Assembly in New York on September 22, 2026, where he said he expected an Iran deal after the November midterm elections while keeping renewed military action on the table. Official White House Photo by Daniel Torok / Public Domain. |
Iran has not said it has received a formal rejection from Washington. Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Tehran had sent the proposal through intermediaries and was awaiting an official U.S. response. Reuters reported Saturday that Tehran was still waiting for Washington’s formal reply even after the Journal’s account of Trump’s decision.
That leaves the diplomatic channel formally open, even as the gap between the two sides has widened.
What Iran offered in seven days
Iran’s proposal was built around a compressed timetable.
Araghchi said the clock could begin as soon as Washington accepted the plan. Under the proposal described by Iranian officials, fighting would stop across several fronts, the U.S. would lift its naval blockade of Iranian ports and ease restrictions affecting Iranian oil sales and frozen assets, and Iran would reopen the Strait of Hormuz within seven days. Nuclear negotiations would then restart.
The proposal draws on an earlier framework but changes the sequence and dramatically shortens the timetable. Iran’s aim is to secure economic and military relief first, then move into negotiations over the nuclear file. Washington has pushed for the nuclear issue to be addressed earlier in the process.
Araghchi described the offer in New York as a concrete path that could move quickly if the U.S. agreed to its terms.
For Tehran, the seven-day timetable is also political: it would force movement before the U.S. midterm elections rather than leave diplomacy open-ended through November.
Why Hormuz is at the center
The Strait of Hormuz remains one of Iran’s strongest bargaining tools.
Roughly one-fifth of global oil supply normally passes through the waterway, which connects Gulf producers to international markets. Disruption has pushed energy prices higher and turned control of shipping through the strait into both an economic and strategic issue.
Iranian officials have repeatedly linked reopening Hormuz to an easing of U.S. military and economic pressure.
Earlier this week, a senior Iranian official told Reuters that Tehran could reopen the strait within a week if Washington reduced military pressure and lifted its blockade on Iranian ports. The Iranian delegation in New York had authority to pursue negotiations, according to the same report.
The new seven-day proposal turned that broader offer into a sequence of reciprocal steps.
Trump had already pointed to November
The reported rejection fits with a timetable Trump had already outlined publicly.
At the U.N. General Assembly this week, Trump said he expected an agreement with Iran after the November midterm elections. At the same time, he kept the possibility of renewed military action on the table.
The Wall Street Journal’s latest report goes further, saying Trump told aides he expects bombing to resume once the midterms are over.
There is still no publicly announced date for new strikes, and the report describes an expectation conveyed inside the administration rather than a formal military order.
That distinction matters because Washington is simultaneously keeping diplomatic contacts alive.
Reuters reported Saturday that Iran was awaiting a formal U.S. answer to the proposal even after news of Trump’s rejection emerged.
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| Editorial illustration by EastoraNews |
Tehran wants a faster timetable
Iran is pushing in the opposite direction.
Its latest offer is designed to create visible movement within days, not months. Tehran wants the blockade lifted and shipping restored before entering broader nuclear negotiations, while Washington has been reluctant to surrender pressure before securing Iranian concessions.
That difference in sequencing has repeatedly blocked earlier efforts.
Iran sees Hormuz as leverage that helped force Washington back toward diplomacy. The U.S. sees sanctions, the naval blockade and military pressure as leverage that should not be relaxed before Tehran agrees to tougher terms.
The seven-day plan tries to bridge that gap through reciprocal steps, but Trump’s reported rejection suggests Washington is not ready to accept Iran’s order of implementation.
What changed — and what did not
What changed this week is that Iran put a more detailed timetable on the table.
Instead of broad statements about ending the conflict, Tehran linked specific steps — ceasefire, blockade relief, the reopening of Hormuz and renewed nuclear talks — to a one-week sequence.
What has not changed is the core dispute over who moves first.
Washington wants Iran to make substantive concessions while U.S. pressure remains in place. Tehran wants economic and military pressure eased before giving up its leverage over the strait.
For now, the seven-day timetable has not begun.
Hormuz remains part of the bargaining table, no comprehensive ceasefire is in force under the proposal, and November has become the next political marker in the confrontation.
The next real test will not be another announcement from either capital. It will be whether Washington formally closes the door on the proposal — or whether the indirect channel remains active long enough for the terms to change.
Sources: The Wall Street Journal; Reuters; Al Jazeera; Associated Press
Source Links
- The Wall Street Journal — original reporting that Trump rejected Iran’s seven-day proposal and told aides he expects strikes to resume after the midterms, as cited by Reuters and Times of Israel. Times of Israel summary of the WSJ report
- Reuters — Iran awaits a formal U.S. response after the WSJ report. Iran awaits U.S. move after WSJ report
- Reuters — Iran’s earlier offer to reopen Hormuz within seven days if the U.S. eases military pressure and lifts the blockade. Iran ready to reopen Strait of Hormuz
- Al Jazeera — detailed breakdown of Iran’s seven-day plan and the sequencing of blockade relief, Hormuz reopening and nuclear talks. What’s in Iran’s seven-day Hormuz plan?
- Associated Press — Trump’s U.N. remarks on Iran and the wider conflict. Trump’s 2026 U.N. address