US envoy Mike Waltz says Trump rejected Iran's latest Hormuz ceasefire offer because Tehran wanted sanctions relief and frozen assets before real talks. Iran's foreign minister disputes that account, and neither side describes a deal as imminent, keeping the risk premium on oil tied to the Strait of Hormuz unresolved.
Washington and Tehran cannot agree on what Iran actually offered, let alone whether it should be accepted, and that gap is what matters for oil markets heading into the week. US Ambassador to the UN Mike Waltz told CNN's State of the Union that Trump turned down Iran's latest proposal because Tehran wanted sanctions relief and access to billions of dollars in frozen assets before agreeing to negotiate an end to its nuclear programme.
Waltz calls the offer "cynical"
Speaking separately on NBC's Meet the Press, Waltz called the proposal, according to Investinglive: "a pretty cynical attempt" to put forward terms Iran knew Washington could not accept. He added that the US would eventually need some form of agreement with Tehran, and that Trump intended to keep all options open.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, appearing later on the same programme, pushed back directly on Waltz's account. He told host Kristen Welker that Iran remained prepared to reopen the Strait of Hormuz if the US released frozen assets and allowed Iranian oil sales to resume, and suggested Waltz had not read the actual terms.
What was on the table
The rejected proposal would have paired a Hormuz reopening and resumed nuclear talks with the US lifting its naval blockade of Iranian ports, waiving sanctions on Iranian oil sales, and committing to a seven-day ceasefire that extended to Lebanon. Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian described it differently again on CBS's Face the Nation, framing it as a staged approach built on an earlier US-Iran memorandum of understanding, under which both sides would take initial steps before broader negotiations.
Waltz countered that Washington considers Iran to have already violated that earlier memorandum by attacking international shipping, and said any eventual deal would need to address Iran's stockpile of highly enriched uranium. He also faced questions about a Wall Street Journal report that Trump has told aides he expects to resume bombing Iran after November's midterm elections, which he dismissed only as anonymous reporting without confirming or denying it.
Neither Washington nor Tehran is describing a deal as imminent, and that keeps the standoff structurally unchanged. The unresolved dispute over Hormuz continues to support elevated risk premium in oil and safe haven positioning as the most direct channels through which the story reaches markets this week.
Source: Investinglive (Investinglive RSS Breaking News Feed)
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