Iran Offers Seven-Day Strait of Hormuz Reopening Plan as Nuclear Talks Hang on Trump's Conditions

Key facts

• Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Iran delivered a plan to reopen the Strait of Hormuz and restart nuclear talks within seven days if the Trump administration accepts its conditions.
• Araghchi said the terms closely follow the June 17 memorandum of understanding signed by both countries, which produced a brief ceasefire before collapsing in early July.
• The Trump administration has said it will not return to the terms of that agreement, and Qatar has been passing messages between the two sides in New York.
• Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said Tehran wants a deal before the November midterm elections, stating, "We wish Americans to return to the MoU before the midterms."
• Secretary of State Marco Rubio described the diplomacy as falling short of any breakthrough, while U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner handled back-channel exchanges with Araghchi through Qatari intermediaries.
• Tehran insists relief from the U.S. naval blockade and a rollback of sanctions must come first before nuclear discussions, while Washington wants the nuclear file addressed as a single package from the start.
• Ship-tracking data showed only 9 vessel transits through the Strait of Hormuz, and on Friday Brent crude futures slipped 1% to $105.56 a barrel while West Texas Intermediate fell 1.8% to $92.94.
• The national average gas price reached $4.48 a gallon this week, up roughly $1.20 from a year earlier, with a Brown University analysis estimating more than $50 billion in additional U.S. fuel costs since the conflict began in late February.