Donald Trump rejects Iran’s proposal to reopen Strait of Hormuz

 Donald Trump has rejected Iran’s proposal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz within a week if the US meets certain conditions.

The US president spoke to reporters on Saturday outside the White House before leaving for a college football game.

Tehran offered this week to reopen the strait and resume talks on its nuclear programme in seven days if the US lifted its naval blockade of Iranian ports, waived sanctions on Iranian oil sales and observed a ceasefire that would include Lebanon.

Mr Trump rejected the proposal saying Iran wanted to make a deal because it was “losing so badly”.

“They want to make a deal and I think that’s fine,” he told reporters. “I’d like to make a deal too. But that deal would not be acceptable.”

Iran effectively closed the strait after the US and Israel attacked the Islamic Republic in late February, and the number of ships passing through has dropped significantly because of Iranian threats and attacks on vessels in the waterway.

Earlier on Saturday Mr Trump posted an image on his Truth Social platform of the Strait of Hormuz labelled “Trump Strait”, in the first public indication of his thinking after Iran proposed the new deal and suggested it might help him ahead of US mid-term elections.

The White House on Friday said only that US officials were having positive and constructive conversations with mediators on the Iran war.

Iranian media outlets said President Masoud Pezeshkian had left New York after the United Nations gathering of world leaders that included Iran’s indirect talks with the US.

His speech to the gathering pushed back against Mr Trump’s latest threat to “annihilate” the Islamic Republic, but he ended by saying Tehran remained open to diplomacy.

Meanwhile, Saudi Arabian military spokesman Major General Turki al-Malki claimed early on Saturday that a ballistic missile launched by Iran-backed Houthi rebels in neighbouring Yemen had been intercepted and destroyed. He said it was fired towards the south-western city of Khamis Mushait.