Iran pushes seven-day plan to reopen Hormuz and insists on its conditions as US weighs fresh strikes
Iran's foreign minister says Tehran is in close contact with mediators over a seven-day plan that could reopen the Strait of Hormuz within a week, while parliament's speaker insists progress depends on Washington accepting Iran's seven conditions.
Iran has put a stopwatch on diplomacy. Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said in a social media post late on Wednesday that Tehran remains "in close and ongoing contact with intermediaries to review ideas that can ensure implementation of our 7-Day Plan in even less than a week" — a proposal that would reopen the Strait of Hormuz and restart negotiations with the United States on a fixed, rapid timetable.
The plan, first put forward in September and relayed to Washington through Qatar, is built as a sequence. If Iran's conditions are accepted, the United States would end its attacks on Iran, lift its naval blockade, ease restrictions on Iranian oil exports and release Iran's frozen assets within five days. Once those steps were taken, Iran would reopen the waterway to commercial shipping on the sixth day and resume talks with the US on the seventh day aimed at a final deal.
Tehran's conditions are specific and, so far, non-negotiable in public. They include a ceasefire across the Middle East, an end to the US naval blockade, the unfreezing of Iranian assets held abroad and the lifting of sanctions on Iran's oil sector. Iran insists Washington must meet the seven conditions it has set before the strait reopens.
Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf reinforced that line on Thursday. "Iran's conditions have been repeatedly and clearly stated to the mediators. The carrot-and-stick approach does not affect Iran," he wrote. "Progress can only be achieved once Iran's seven conditions have been agreed upon."
The reason for the "stick" in his remark became clearer the same day. The Associated Press reported on Thursday that US officials have told several Middle East countries and regional allies to be prepared for potential fresh strikes against Iran after the US midterm elections on November 3, and for the possibility of Tehran retaliating. The diplomats briefed on the matter said President Donald Trump has not made a final decision; he has said there would be no strikes before the elections, but has repeatedly said he is weighing new military action afterwards.
The military option is being actively prepared. On Thursday, Admiral Brad Cooper, the head of US Central Command, briefed Trump on military options for Iran at a White House meeting attended by Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth, Joint Chiefs Chairman General Dan Caine and other cabinet members, according to the Wall Street Journal. Washington has increased air defences and munitions across the Middle East in recent weeks and repositioned some troops away from installations considered vulnerable to Iranian retaliation.
Against that backdrop, the mediation track has produced motion but not agreement. Qatari mediators presented Iran with a new draft deal on Sunday, but a senior Iranian official dismissed it, saying Doha had put forward unacceptable ideas that did not amount to an offer. Araghchi said on Wednesday that Tehran was discussing a plan with mediators, mainly Qatar and Pakistan, to end the war and reopen the strait.
Signals from Washington have been mixed in a way that complicates Tehran's reading. Iranian media confirmed this week that Tehran received a letter from US Vice President JD Vance but has not yet responded; American reporting said the letter sought a framework for renewed negotiations. Trump, however, denied directing Vance to reach out to restart peace talks, saying the outreach concerned helping Iran obtain medical supplies — "getting supplies in to help people that are not well."
The stakes are defined by the waterway itself. The war, which began on February 28 with US-Israeli strikes that killed Iran's then supreme leader and senior commanders, is now in its eighth month, and the strait — which normally carries about one-fifth of global oil consumption — remains at the centre of it, with tankers striking mines and catching fire there this week.
Two clocks are now running at once: Iran's proposed seven-day diplomatic sequence, and Washington's post-election decision window on strikes. Which one reaches zero first may depend on whether the mediators can bridge the gap between Tehran's seven conditions and an American administration that is simultaneously briefing military options — and neither side has yet shown its final hand.
