U.S. President Donald Trump told reporters outside the White House on Saturday that he had rejected a proposal Iran presented in New York this week.
“They made a proposal, and I rejected it,” Trump said.
However, a U.S. official said talks between Washington and Tehran were continuing through regional mediators. The unidentified official said the negotiations were progressing “positively and constructively” and that nuclear issues were also part of the discussions.
Iran’s conditions in New York
U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner held indirect talks with Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi in New York this week during meetings of the United Nations General Assembly. Officials from Qatar helped facilitate the exchange of messages between Washington and Tehran.
During the talks, Araghchi presented Iran’s conditions for reopening the Strait of Hormuz and continuing the nuclear negotiations. In return for reopening the strategic waterway and resuming nuclear talks within a week, Tehran asked Washington to lift the naval blockade, end sanctions on Iranian oil sales and reinstate a region-wide ceasefire.
U.S. negotiators argued that Tehran did not control the Strait of Hormuz and therefore could not make demands concerning the waterway.
Mediators in Washington–Tehran diplomacy
The indirect talks took place as Türkiye, Qatar and other regional mediators sought to revive the diplomatic process between Washington and Tehran. Fundamental disagreements between the sides remained.