The White House said on Monday that President Donald Trump held discussions with national security aides after the Iranian regime submitted a new proposal to resolve the conflict.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt responded to questions in a news conference about reports that Tehran sent the U.S. government a new plan in the midst of a ceasefire and naval blockade.
Leavitt did not give additional information on the proposal but signaled that Trump’s “red lines” remain the same. Trump has said he wants the Strait of Hormuz open and wants Iran to hand over its uranium to the United States, saying the country’s leadership cannot obtain a nuclear weapon.
“I wouldn’t say they’re considering it. I would just say that there was a discussion this morning that I don’t want to get ahead of, and you’ll hear directly from the president, I’m sure, on this topic,” she said, adding that an Iranian “proposal was being discussed.”
A U.S.–Iranian ceasefire has mostly held up since it was announced by Trump earlier this month. Last week, the president extended the ceasefire but said a U.S. military blockade of Iranian ports would remain in effect.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, however, said on Monday that a purported offer from Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz under strict conditions is not acceptable to the United States or others.
Speaking in a Monday interview with Fox News, Rubio stated Iran has a different view of the strategic waterway than most of the rest of the world. He also said that Iran cannot block transit through the strategic waterway, which normally carries about one-fifth of the world’s oil.
“What they mean by opening the straits is, yes, the straits are open, as long as you coordinate with Iran, get our permission, or we’ll blow you up and you pay us,” Rubio said. “That’s not opening the straits. Those are international waterways. They cannot normalize, nor can we tolerate them trying to normalize a system in which the Iranians decide who gets to use an international waterway and how much you have to pay them to use it.”
The new comments were made as Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi visited Russia and met with Russian President Vladimir Putin and other top officials. He claimed to Russian state-run television that the U.S. military “have achieved none of their goals” in the conflict with Iran, although dozens of top Iranian leaders were killed and large portions of Iran’s military were degraded in U.S. and Israeli strikes that began on Feb. 28.
The visit in Russia is “a good opportunity for us to consult with our Russian friends about the developments that have occurred in relation to the war during this period and what is happening now,” Araghchi told Iranian state media.
Meanwhile, the average price for a gallon of gas inside the United States increased Monday to $4.11 per gallon, or around 2 cents higher, as oil prices continue to to rise, according to the American Automotive Association. The price for a barrel of Brent crude oil increased more than 2 percent Monday to $107.