Iran says US response to its proposal to reopen Hormuz was 'insufficient'

DUBAI: The United States’ response to Iran’s seven conditions in a proposal to reopen the strategic Strait of Hormuz was “insufficient”, Iran’s security chief, Mohsen Rezaei, was quoted by state media on Sunday as saying.

Iran presented a proposal during the UN General Assembly under which the Strait of Hormuz waterway could be reopened and normal maritime passage restored within seven days if the conditions were met, to which the US later replied via Qatari intermediaries.

Washington needs to clarify the issues that remain unclear to Tehran, Rezaei, Secretary of the Supreme National Security Council, said, adding “we presented seven conditions to the Americans and clearly stated that the Strait of Hormuz would not be opened to them, and no negotiations would take place, until these conditions are met.”

The White House did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.

Rezaei said Iran is “no longer in the process of responding to the Americans”.

“In their response, they have accepted some of our conditions, while others remain unclear,” he added.

Tehran said late in September that it had received a US response to its latest proposal to resurrect the collapsed ceasefire in the Gulf, days after US President Donald Trump said he had rejected it.

Qatar and other mediators have transmitted messages between Washington and Tehran in an effort to end the conflict and reopen the Strait of Hormuz, the conduit for a fifth of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas before the war that began at the end of February with US and Israeli attacks on Iran.