Iran’s foreign minister Abbas Araghchi said in an interview with Al Jazeera on Saturday that the implementation period in Tehran’s proposal for reopening the Strait of Hormuz has been cut to two days. RIA Novosti’s account of the interview puts the progression at a seven-day plan, which President Trump rejected, then a Qatari proposal to cut the period to five days, and now two days; RT’s account of the same interview adds that Araghchi would personally oversee the plan’s execution once its conditions are met. The conditions he listed are the lifting of sanctions on Iran, the release of its frozen assets, a reduction of the US military presence in the region and compensation for war damage; Clash Report’s account of the interview adds restored oil waivers, recognition of a new Hormuz shipping route agreed with Oman with other routes closed, and an end to the war on all fronts, including Lebanon.
Araghchi said Iran sees no need to meet US officials in the current circumstances and will decide on negotiations, direct or indirect, only after Washington accepts its conditions, though he called Washington’s attempt to open dialogue a positive step and said Tehran had studied a letter from Vice President JD Vance at high-level meetings. The remarks land the same morning Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei ordered a maximum response to any new attack, so Tehran is pairing a shorter stated path to reopening the strait with a higher stated retaliation ceiling, and the gate on the shorter path remains Washington’s acceptance first.