Iran says it will reopen Strait of Hormuz in days if US meets demands

Tehran confirmed Monday that it is trading messages with Washington in what Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi called "very intensive" consultations, with Qatar and Pakistan running the mediating effort. Speaking to Iran's official IRNA news agency, Araghchi said the exchanges are indirect and that the gravity of the moment explains the pace. Axios reported that US Vice President JD Vance sent a letter to Mohsen Rezaei, secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, about possible fresh talks — the highest-level contact in months, according to the outlet.

The centerpiece of the offer is Hormuz. A senior Iranian official said Tehran is prepared to reopen the strait, the Gulf's main energy export artery, within two days provided Washington accepts its list of demands. Foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei pointed back to a September proposal: Iran would reopen the waterway under a seven-day plan if the US ends the war on all fronts, unfreezes Iranian assets, lifts oil sanctions and halts its counter-blockade of Iranian ports. "Everything depends" on the American side, Baghaei told reporters, adding that only then can later stages be discussed.

Markets reacted fast. Oil prices, which had been sent soaring by Iran's blockade of the strait, dropped more than six percent on Monday as traders bet on a de-escalation in the eight-month-old conflict. The timing is loaded: Tuesday's US midterm elections are being fought against voter frustration over the war and higher fuel costs, and Democrats expect to seize at least partial control of Congress — which would hand them their first real leverage over President Donald Trump in two years.

Trump isn't softening. At a campaign rally he said that at "some point we're going to have to give them the hammer," and on Saturday he said he still had to "take care" of one or two targets, naming Pickaxe mountain in central Iran — a site Washington suspects is nuclear and Tehran insists is not. Baghaei fired back that any act of aggression against Iran, by any means, would draw a powerful, immediate and comprehensive response. Iran's First Vice President Mohammad Reza Aref framed the US messages as "an acknowledgement of our victory," saying Washington failed to hit its objectives in the last two wars.

The push isn't confined to Doha and Islamabad. Chinese President Xi Jinping discussed the conflict with Oman's Sultan Haitham bin Tariq in Beijing on Monday, the Gulf state's first head-of-state visit since ties were established, with a joint call for the US and Iran to take a peaceful path and prevent war outright. Beijing also hosted Iranian and Saudi officials, and Foreign Minister Wang Yi told Iran's Ali Bagheri that China backs Tehran in safeguarding its sovereignty and security — while Bagheri said Iran will make no compromises on its national security. Russian President Vladimir Putin and Iran's security chief Rezaei spoke by phone, Iranian state media said.