Iran has presented a proposal to the United States that would focus on opening the Strait of Hormuz and ending the war but would table thorny discussions around Iran\u2019s nuclear program until a later date, a Gulf source and a regional source told NBC News.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The details of the proposal were first reported by Axios.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Iranian proposal was discussed Monday in a meeting between President Donald Trump and his national security team, according to White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, although it was not immediately clear how seriously it was being weighed. \u200b<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The U.S. demand for Iran to halt its nuclear enrichment program has been a key roadblock in negotiations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe president\u2019s red lines with respect to Iran have been made very, very clear, not just to the American public, but also to them as well,\u201d Leavitt told reporters on Monday. \u201cI wouldn\u2019t say they\u2019re considering it. I would just say that there was a discussion this morning that I don\u2019t want to get ahead of.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
She added, \u201cYou\u2019ll hear directly from the president, I\u2019m sure, on this topic very soon.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Members of the Gulf Cooperation Council will hold a meeting Tuesday where the Iranian proposal will also be discussed, according to two Gulf officials. While constraining Iran\u2019s nuclear program is critical to the Trump administration, opening the key Strait of Hormuz trade route and restarting the flow of oil remains the priority for Gulf allies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On Monday, Trump was expected to convene a meeting of his top national security officials over Iran, according to a source familiar with the situation and a U.S. official. That included efforts to reopen the Strait of Hormuz.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Asked about a meeting, White House spokesperson Olivia Wales declined to comment on the \u201csensitive diplomatic discussions.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
With peace talks stalled and the two countries engaged in a standoff over the waterway that saw energy prices surge again Monday, Trump has publicly urged Tehran to phone when it wants a deal. He scrapped a planned weekend trip by his envoys that has left face-to-face diplomacy at an impasse.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi traveled to Islamabad, the Pakistani capital that has emerged as a hub of diplomacy. to present the latest Iranian proposal to mediating Pakistani officials but refused to meet directly with U.S. officials to discuss it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He then flew to Russia on Monday to meet with President Vladimir Putin, after Trump scrapped the planned trip by his envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“Iran is resisting the biggest superpower in the world,” Araghchi said after meeting Putin, according to Russian state media. The United States, he added, hasn’t “achieved a single goal. That\u2019s why” Trump is “asking for negotiations, and we\u2019re considering it.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Putin said he saw “how courageously and heroically the people of Iran are fighting for their independence” and told the Iranian foreign minister that Russia would “do everything that serves your interests and the interests of all the peoples of the region.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Russian president said he received a message last week from Iran’s new supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, who was appointed after his father, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was killed in an airstrike and was wounded in a bombing himself. Putin wished Khamenei “the very best, good health and well-being.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
While in Russia, Araghchi also blamed \u201cAmerica\u2019s excessive demands and incorrect approaches\u201d for causing peace talks to falter \u2014 even if he did laud his \u201cvery good\u201d and “constructive” trip to Islamabad.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Trump last week indefinitely extended the ceasefire in the war he launched alongside Israel two months ago.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But a first round of direct talks in Islamabad failed to reach a deal to end the conflict, and the two sides remain at odds in many of their core demands.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Trump took action Saturday, posting on Truth Social that he was calling off his envoys’ trip to Pakistan as there had been “too much time wasted on traveling, too much work!”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Trump added that the U.S. had “all the cards, they have none! If they want to talk, all they have to do is call!!!”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Trump later told reporters that within 10 minutes of him scrapping the trip, Iran sent a \u201cmuch better\u201d proposal. Speaking to Fox News’ “Sunday Briefing,” Trump said that “if they want to talk, they can come to us, or they can call us. You know, there is a telephone. We have nice secure lines.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He also outlined his case that the U.S. blockade is pressuring Iran by preventing it from raising crucial funds by selling oil, while also potentially creating a situation where Tehran has to halt production because it has nowhere to store the oil.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Iran has shown little sign of caving yet, wielding its stranglehold over the Strait of Hormuz to pressure the global economy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Shipping remains at an effective standstill in the vital waterway that previously carried one-fifth of the world’s oil, and other essential products such as fertilizers needed for the global food supply.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The international benchmark price for oil, brent crude, rose again to $107 a barrel Monday, while U.S. gas prices climbed to $4.11 a gallon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Some world leaders are taking a dim view of Trump’s negotiating tactics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“An entire nation is being humiliated by the Iranian leadership, especially by these so-called Revolutionary Guards,” German Chancellor Friedrich Merz German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said during a talk to students Monday. “The Iranians are obviously very skilled at negotiating, or rather, very skillful at not negotiating, letting the Americans travel to Islamabad and then leave again without any result.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
After leaving Islamabad, Araghchi flew to Oman, another mediator that also shares the strait with Iran, before landing in Russia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The trip was a “valuable opportunity to discuss developments in the war and review the latest situation,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Before the Putin meeting, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters that “the importance of this conversation is difficult to overestimate in terms of how the situation around Iran and in the Middle East is developing.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n