Iran says the Strait of Hormuz could reopen within seven days if Washington accepts its conditions, with nuclear negotiations to follow. Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi laid out the timetable during the United Nations General Assembly in New York.

"If certain conditions are met, the Strait of Hormuz will be open at the end of seven days, and talks will be restarted," Araghchi told reporters.

The proposal comes nearly seven months after the United States and Israel began their war with Iran, and days after President Masoud Pezeshkian responded to President Donald Trump's "annihilation" threat at the UNGA. The strait, which links the Persian Gulf to the Gulf of Oman, is one of the world's most important oil transit chokepoints: by U.S. Energy Information Administration estimates, roughly a fifth of global petroleum liquids consumption passes through the passage, which narrows to about 21 miles between Oman and Iran — a flow that explains why even signals of Washington–Tehran negotiation are watched closely in crude markets.

Conditions anchored to the Islamabad MOU

Araghchi said Tehran's demands are not new. "The conditions we have asked the U.S. to meet are nothing new, nothing more than what was already in the Islamabad MOU, which was by the U.S. President," he said.

The Islamabad Memorandum of Understanding was the June ceasefire arrangement between Iran and the United States. It fell apart in early July. When Cryptopolitan reported on the Iranian deal months ago, there was no ambiguity about what Tehran was offering: through intermediaries, Iran made clear that discussions of its nuclear program could resume if Hormuz reopened.

Oil prices slip on negotiation prospects

Oil prices slipped in line with the market's usual reaction to signals of potential Washington–Tehran negotiations. Futures contracts for November delivery of Brent crude oil fell 1%, trading at $105.56 per barrel, while futures contracts for November delivery of West Texas Intermediate crude oil slid 1.8%, settling at $92.94 per barrel. Brent is the international crude benchmark, while WTI is its U.S. equivalent.

Meanwhile, open-source intelligence reports using Sentinel-2 satellite imagery — the European Space Agency's freely available Copernicus Earth-observation mission — including updates shared by the naval tracking account Hormuz Report on X — said U.S. carriers and destroyers were no longer visible at their earlier blockade positions in the Gulf of Oman and Arabian Sea from early September.

Those reports followed Iran's claimed first operational use of the Qasem Basir anti-ship ballistic missile against American naval forces. Officially, the Qasem Basir has a range of around 1,200 km, placing the majority of the Gulf of Oman within striking distance, including the locations where American fleets had been positioned. According to Iranian media, the guidance system uses electro-optical and infrared imaging technology to track ships in motion. Reporters have described the weapon as a "carrier killer," although the exact missile used in the September naval encounter has not been independently established.

Open-source tracking shows that the USS George Washington, USS George H.W. Bush, USS Tripoli, and several Arleigh Burke-class destroyers — the guided-missile mainstay of the U.S. Navy's surface fleet — are outside the original blockade zone. The USS Gerald R. Ford is now leaving as well, marking the end of months-long deployments in the Middle East. According to U.S. Navy logs, the Ford and her accompanying ships completed an 11-month deployment that included operations related to the ongoing Iran War. Independent trackers reported seeing two American aircraft carriers deployed in the broader area as CENTCOM — the U.S. command responsible for the Middle East — planned "short and strong strikes" against Iran.

Trump presses China over Iran

U.S. Ambassador to China David Perdue said Friday that Trump has spent recent weeks warning Beijing against giving Iran assistance. Perdue told CNBC (NASDAQ: CMCSA) in an interview that the subject had taken up a large amount of his time and Trump's attention over the past month, including during Trump's latest meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping.

"Believe me, believe me, much of my personal time and much of President Trump's time over the last month has been that very topic. We made it very clear to them weeks ago that, you know, any help that they would give Iran, whether it would be direct or indirect, whether it would be intelligence or parts or military equipment, was totally unacceptable," Perdue said.

He added that Trump repeated that message during his latest discussion with Xi, according to the ambassador.

Pezeshkian: Washington must decide whether the war ends

Pezeshkian continues to place the blame squarely on Washington for the war not ending. During a television appearance on Fox News (NASDAQ: FOXA, FOX), the Iranian president said Iran does not want the war to go on and still wishes to talk. He also claimed Tehran would agree to inspections of its nuclear program and to enrichment below certain thresholds.

"It's America that must choose whether it wants to end this or not," Pezeshkian said when asked whether the war could end before the close of the year. Taken together with Araghchi's seven-day timetable, the statements frame the immediate next markers: a U.S. response to the Islamabad MOU conditions, and whether carrier positions and Hormuz traffic continue to shift as satellite imagery updates.