President Trump on Saturday rejected Iran’s proposal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz within a week if the U.S. meets certain conditions.
Trump spoke to reporters Saturday outside the White House before leaving for a college football game.
Iran has offered to reopen the strait and resume talks on its nuclear program in seven days if the U.S. lifts its naval blockade of Iranian ports, waives sanctions on Iranian oil sales and observes a ceasefire that would include Lebanon.
Trump posted an image early Saturday morning on his social media platform of the Strait of Hormuz labeled “Trump Strait,” in the first public indication of his thinking after Iran proposed the new deal and suggested it might help Trump ahead of the midterm elections.
The White House on Friday said only that U.S. officials were having positive and constructive conversations with mediators on the Iran war. Earlier in the week, Iran held hours of indirect talks with the U.S. on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly.
Semiofficial media outlets in Iran reported that President Masoud Pezeshkian has departed New York for Tehran after the annual U.N. gathering of world leaders.
Pezeshkian’s speech to the gathering was a response to Trump’s latest threat to “annihilate” the Islamic Republic, but he ended by saying Tehran remains open to diplomacy.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi on Friday night outlined Tehran’s latest proposal for reopening the Strait of Hormuz.
The Iranian president, meanwhile, addressed the issue of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei’s health, as he has not been seen or heard in public since the start of the war in late February, when U.S.-Israeli attacks left him injured and killed his father and predecessor, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and other family members.
Pezeshkian told CBS that from his viewpoint as a physician, the supreme leader has “no specific ongoing health issues.”
The interview will air Sunday.
In the transcript CBS released, Pezeshkian described his most recent meeting with Khamenei as lasting more than seven hours. “But, of course, he was healthy enough to be able to withstand those hours of that situation. From a medical standpoint, he’s completely healthy,” the president said. When asked whether the supreme leader’s face and legs have recovered, Pezeshkian responded, “Yes.”
Elsewhere in the Middle East, Saudi Arabia’s military spokesperson, Maj. Gen. Turki al-Malki, claimed early Saturday that a ballistic missile launched by the Iran-backed Houthi rebels in neighboring Yemen was intercepted and destroyed. He said it was fired toward the southwestern city of Khamis Mushait.
The Associated Press couldn’t immediately verify that independently. There was no immediate statement of responsibility, though it can take days for the Houthis to issue one.
A regional body representing Arab gulf states, the Gulf Cooperation Council, condemned the latest Houthi attacks as a “grave escalation and threat to regional security” and urged the international community to respond.
Iraq said it is in direct contact with the U.S. to secure exemptions from sanctions on Iranian airlines as Washington continues economic pressure on Iran.
The Iraqi prime minister’s office said the aim is to get exemptions for certain airports, noting flights for humanitarian reasons such as medical treatment, education and religious pilgrimages.
Many pilgrims in neighboring Iran visit sites such as Karbala and Najaf.
In the occupied West Bank, Israeli settlers have intensified efforts to seize natural springs and heritage sites. The springs are vital for drinking water, tourism and agriculture and increasingly inaccessible to the 2.8 million Palestinians living there.
In the Jordan Valley, settlers cut a water pipe to a Palestinian village, redirecting it to a pool they named after Herod, the Roman-appointed king of Judea. Israeli rights groups say the move is part of a broader effort to claim heritage sites.
The struggle for water access highlights the ongoing contest for control of the West Bank, where Palestinians have faced shortages since 1967.
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