Iran Proposes 2-Month Ceasefire With US

Iranian officials said that issues between Tehran and Washington must be resolved within 30 days, state media says.

Published: 5/3/2026, 3:12:57 PM EDT

Iran Proposes 2-Month Ceasefire With US — An Indian-flagged tanker carrying liquefied petroleum gas that transited the Strait of Hormuz amid the Iran war remains docked at an offloading terminal in Mumbai, India, on April 1, 2026. (Punit Paranjpe/AFP via Getty Images)

Iranian officials on Sunday sent a message to the United States via Pakistan for a two-month-long ceasefire amid negotiations to end the war, according to state-run media.

The Iranian officials stressed that issues between Tehran and Washington must be resolved within 30 days, according to Iran’s semi-official Tasnim News, with a focus on extending the ceasefire.

It was part of a 14-point proposal that included the release of Iranian frozen assets, sanctions removals, lifting a naval blockade, withdrawing U.S. forces from around Iran, and “a new mechanism for the Strait of Hormuz,” Tasnim said. It did not elaborate on what rules the country wants for the strait, although Iranian regime leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei released a statement last week that “new rules” would be imposed by the regime on the waterway.

U.S. officials have said that Iran cannot have control of, or impose toll fees on, ships passing through the strait, a strategic waterway that links the Persian Gulf with the Indian Ocean that normally carries 20 percent of the world’s oil. Since the war started, Iran has attacked or threatened ships in the strait and elsewhere in the region, effectively shutting down commercial transit in the waterway and pushing oil and gas prices significantly higher.

President Donald Trump in early April said Iran is doing a “poor job” of managing the strait and said that the country cannot charge fees.

Late last week, the Treasury Department said it would impose sanctions and penalties on ships that pay Iran in any way to pass through the strait. That includes payments to charities such as the Red Crescent, it said in a notice.

There was no mention in state-run media reports, however, of Iran’s nuclear program and its enriched uranium, long the central issue in tensions with the United States. Trump has often said that Tehran cannot be able to obtain a nuclear weapon and indicated that U.S. and Israeli military strikes were initiated in late February to prevent the country from doing so.

Meanwhile, a U.S. naval blockade since April 13 is depriving Tehran of oil revenue it needs to shore up its ailing economy. U.S. Central Command on Saturday said 48 commercial ships have been told to turn back.

“We think that they’ve gotten less than $1.3 million in tolls, which is a pittance on their previous daily oil revenues,” U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told Fox News on Sunday. He said Iran’s oil storage is rapidly filling up and “they’re going to have to start shutting in wells, which we think could happen in the next week.”

Also on Sunday, a cargo ship near the Strait of Hormuz has reported being attacked by multiple small craft, the British military’s United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations center said in a notice Sunday.

All crew on the unidentified northbound carrier were safe after the attack off Sirik, Iran, east of the strait, the monitor said. There was no immediate statement from Iran on whether the country was responsible.

Iranian patrol boats, some powered only by twin outboard motors, are small, nimble, and hard to detect and have attacked several ships. Last month, Trump ordered the U.S. military to “shoot and kill” the small boats in the strait along with any Iranian vessels that are believed to be laying mines.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

From The Epoch Times