Iran has given mediators from Qatar and Pakistan a two-day blueprint for reopening the Strait of Hormuz, Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said, raising hopes of an end to months of disruption to one of the world’s most vital energy routes.
Speaking to Al Jazeera on Sunday, Araghchi said the sequence is simple: on day one, Washington carries out a set of agreed measures, and on day two the strait reopens and shipping returns to normal. He did not say what the US measures would be.
The proposal builds on a “seven-day plan” Tehran first put forward in mid-September, which laid out Iran’s conditions for lifting its hold on the waterway.
Araghchi said Qatari and Pakistani officials had worked through many rounds of talks to make that framework more practical and more widely acceptable, and that the shorter timeline emerged from those efforts.
The strait, which lies between Iran and Oman, normally carries about a fifth of global oil and a large share of liquefied natural gas exports.
Iran has effectively controlled passage since the United States launched its war against it in late February, while Washington has kept up its own blockade of Iranian ports. An interim ceasefire in June collapsed, and intermittent strikes have since resumed.
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The diplomacy has quickened in recent days. Qatari mediators arrived in Tehran on Friday, and US Vice President JD Vance sent a letter to Mohsen Rezaei, who heads Iran’s supreme national security council. Rezaei said he had read it but not yet replied, adding that “their tone has completely changed” and calling that a positive sign.
He insisted, however, that the blockade will stay until Iran’s conditions are met, including the release of frozen assets. Mediators from both countries have yet to secure a lasting deal.
On Saturday, President Donald Trump said US forces had destroyed much of Iran’s military but still needed to deal with one or two remaining targets. He described the negotiations as going fine while casting doubt on Iran’s reliability.
Iran’s new supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, issued his own warning the same day, telling senior commanders that any threat must be met with an immediate response not limited by geography. He also ordered the military to expand its target list to cover a wide range of American and Israeli assets.
It was the first reported meeting between Khamenei and top military officers. He has not appeared in public since taking power in March, after his father, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was killed in US-Israeli strikes.
Both Washington and Tehran have hinted at possible escalation after elections in the US and Israel, leaving the mediators a narrow window.
