Trump predicts fresh Iran talks despite rejecting truce proposal

US President Donald Trump said he expects talks with Iran to resume in the coming week, despite rejecting a proposal from Tehran for a seven-day truce and the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz. Iranian officials presented the plan at the United Nations General Assembly in New York. Trump rejected it and has also discussed the possibility of resuming full-scale air strikes on Iranian targets, but told Axios that negotiations could restart soon.

“They want to make a deal, but it is not the deal that I want to make,” Trump told the news platform. Axios, citing people familiar with the matter, reported that indirect talks between Washington and Tehran could begin as early as Monday. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Tehran’s conditions for reopening the strait remained unchanged.

He said the proposed cessation of hostilities covered the Middle East, including Lebanon, and called for a return to terms from an earlier ceasefire arrangement. Those terms included the release of frozen Iranian assets, the lifting of sanctions on Iranian oil and an end to the US naval blockade. “We will not back down from them,” Araghchi said, according to Iranian state broadcaster IRIB.

He added that Iran had not closed the door to diplomacy. Washington’s ambassador to the UN, Mike Waltz, said Iran was demanding too much simply to return to negotiations. He described Tehran’s proposal as unacceptable because it sought relief from the blockade and sanctions, as well as access to billions of dollars in assets.

The dispute has left the Gulf front in a stalemate. Iran’s Revolutionary Guards also said they had seized an American submersible drone in the Strait of Hormuz, alleging that it was being used for espionage. The force said the vehicle was being examined for data recovery.