Middle East & North Africa
Araghchi: the Strait of Hormuz opens on day six of Iran’s plan if the US accepts the terms – “The proposal is still on the table”
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Tehran’s seven-day plan to reopen the Strait of Hormuz remains “still on the table”, with the Strait opening on the sixth day and negotiations resuming on the seventh if the United States meets Iran’s terms.
Iran’s seven-day plan to reopen the Strait of Hormuz remains “still on the table”, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said, speaking to the state news agency IRNA in Baghdad, where he took part in the meeting of foreign ministers of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation. According to China’s Xinhua, which reproduced the interview, Araghchi said on Sunday, October 18 that Tehran’s terms for ending hostilities and opening the Strait are “absolutely clear” and have been submitted to the United States.
According to the Iranian minister, Washington sent its own views and Tehran is studying them. Under the plan, if the US meets the terms, the Strait will open on the sixth day and negotiations will resume on the seventh. The terms, he said, are the same commitments the US had already accepted in the memorandum of understanding signed in June in Islamabad. Araghchi added that Iran will not yield to threats, is ready to defend itself and remains open to diplomacy.
What the plan contains
The plan first appeared in late September and Donald Trump rejected it at the time as “unacceptable”. It provides for four to five days of confidence-building measures before the opening. According to reports, Tehran is asking for the release of about 12 billion dollars of frozen funds, easing of oil sanctions, an end to the US naval blockade of Iranian ports and a ceasefire in the region that includes Lebanon and Yemen. In early October Iran had set seven conditions for Hormuz.
The previous day, in his speech at the Baghdad meeting, Araghchi had said the proposal was passed through Qatar and that the US cannot expect maritime security to normalise while keeping up military pressure on Iran. During the same visit he said new talks would take place only with “credible guarantees”.
The US and Israel began strikes on Iran on February 28, 2026, and a ceasefire has been in force since April 8. The 60 days of talks after the June memorandum expired on August 17 without result. Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps reported that two tankers caught fire after hitting mines in the Strait, which shows how dangerous transit remains for shipping. These are the claims of the parties.