Iran Offers to Reopen Strait of Hormuz Within Seven Days if US Eases Military Pressure, Lifts Blockade

DUBAI — Iran has offered to reopen the Strait of Hormuz within seven days if the United States eases military pressure and lifts its blockade on Iranian ports, a senior Iranian official told Reuters on Tuesday, raising hopes for renewed diplomacy after nearly seven months of conflict in the Middle East even as violence continued along the strait itself.

The proposal, reportedly communicated to Washington through mediators, comes as Iran’s delegation to the United Nations General Assembly arrived in New York this week with what officials described as full authority to revive diplomatic talks with the United States. Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian departed Tehran for New York on Tuesday morning, though he is not expected to meet directly with U.S. officials during the trip.

A senior Iranian official laid out the conditions Tehran is seeking before any reopening could take place. “The US needs to announce that it wants to resolve the issue diplomatically, make that official, and then agree on a timeline for how the process will move forward,” the official told Reuters. Iran had previously outlined seven separate conditions for restarting broader talks with Washington, including the lifting of the naval blockade on its ports and the unfreezing of Iranian financial assets held abroad.

The offer follows a tense weekend in which Iran’s military central command said it had been informed the United States was preparing to restart military operations with support from regional countries, warning that any renewed offensive would prompt Tehran to retaliate “without limitations and considerations.” That warning underscored how quickly the situation along the strait could escalate further even as this week’s diplomatic overture opened a potential path toward de-escalation.

Financial markets reacted quickly to the reports of Iran’s offer. Oil prices fell sharply, with Brent crude dropping below $99 a barrel, down more than 3.5% from the day’s earlier high, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude declined 2.25%. The moves reflected easing concern among traders that the seven-month disruption to global oil supply routed through the strait could be nearing some form of resolution, even though the proposal remains conditional and unconfirmed by the United States.

Despite the diplomatic opening, violence along the strait itself continued unabated in the days immediately preceding the offer. Iran struck another tanker on September 21, injuring two seafarers, according to the Maritime Executive, which cited reporting from the U.K. Maritime Trade Operations center. The vessel was identified as the LR Stephanie, a 72,825-deadweight-ton crude oil tanker registered in the Isle of Man. U.S. Central Command issued its own update the same day asserting that oil continues to move through the strait and that, in the command’s words, “momentum is building” toward normalized traffic, a characterization that stood in tension with Iran’s continued assertion of control over the waterway.

Shipping data compiled by different trackers has painted a somewhat inconsistent picture of just how much traffic is currently moving through the strait. Kpler data cited by Reuters showed only 17 vessels transited the strait over the weekend, down sharply from 37 the week before, with just one very large crude carrier and two refined product tankers making the crossing on Sunday. A separate tracking service, UA.NEWS, reported 12 vessels crossed the strait over the same weekend period, while IMF PortWatch data showed just eight transits recorded on September 13, compared with a pre-crisis daily baseline of roughly 85 vessels. The discrepancies among these figures reflect the difficulty of establishing a single authoritative count of traffic through the strait amid the ongoing crisis, though all available data points to traffic remaining dramatically below normal levels regardless of the exact figure used.

Additional maritime incidents were reported in the 24 hours before Tuesday’s diplomatic news broke. Maritime publications gCaptain and TradeWinds News reported that two seafarers were injured when tankers were struck by unidentified projectiles in the strait, without any party claiming responsibility for the attack. Separately, UKMTO reported that a liquefied petroleum gas tanker sustained damage from debris tied to unidentified projectiles in the same waterway. An unverified, single-source claim from Iranian outlet Pars Today asserted that an advanced reconnaissance drone had been destroyed over the strait, though that report could not be independently confirmed.

The crisis has also continued spreading to a second critical waterway. Iran-aligned Houthi forces in Yemen recently seized Perim Island in the Red Sea, tightening their control over the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, another essential chokepoint for global oil shipments and a key alternative route Saudi Arabia has relied on to bypass the Strait of Hormuz via its East-West pipeline. Houthi-linked media claimed a Saudi airstrike killed six people in the Yemeni port city of Mokha, though that claim has not been independently verified. In response to the expanding Houthi threat, the United Kingdom has reportedly agreed to support Saudi Arabia’s defense with Royal Air Force air-to-air refueling support for Saudi aircraft, an arrangement U.K. Prime Minister Andy Burnham said would remain in place for a matter of weeks and be kept under continuous review.

With Iran’s proposal now before Washington and reportedly under discussion through diplomatic channels in New York, the coming days are likely to determine whether the seven-month crisis moves toward a negotiated resolution or continues along the same pattern of intermittent attacks and disputed claims that has defined the standoff since it began in late February.