In this handout photo provided by U.S. Central Command, U.S. forces patrol the Arabian Sea near M/V Touska on April 20, 2026, after firing upon the Iranian-flagged vessel that the U.S. accused of attempting to violate the U.S. naval blockade of Iranian ports near the Strait of Hormuz.
U.S. Navy | Getty Images
President Donald Trump and his national security team on Monday discussed Iran’s proposal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz if the U.S. lifts its blockade and the war ends, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt confirmed.
The proposal would postpone negotiations on Tehran’s nuclear ambitions for a later date, Axios and The Associated Press reported earlier Monday.
It remains unclear if Trump, who has vowed not to lift the blockade until a deal with Iran is “100% complete,” will entertain the reported offer to end the two-month-old war.
“I will confirm the president has met with his national security team this morning,” Leavitt said at a press briefing Monday afternoon when asked about the reports.
“The meeting may be ongoing,” Leavitt said around 1:23 p.m. ET, “but the proposal was being discussed.”
“I don’t want to get ahead of the president or his national security team. What I will reiterate is that the president’s red lines with respect to Iran have been made very, very clear, not just to the American public, but also to them as well.”
Leavitt quickly added she was not saying that Trump and his team are “considering” the offer.
“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, very soon,” she said.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio in a Fox News interview earlier Monday appeared to pour cold water on any Iranian proposal to clear the strategically vital strait.
“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, when asked about Trump’s claim Saturday that Iran had sent a “much better” offer.
“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,” Rubio said.
The Trump administration has repeatedly insisted the central goal of the conflict is keeping Iran from ever obtaining a nuclear weapon.
“Everything will be peanuts compared to that, if they ever were given a nuclear weapon,” Trump said Saturday night when he spoke to reporters at the White House after a shooting at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner.
But efforts at a diplomatic solution appeared to hit a sudden roadblock over the weekend.
A boy raises his fist while standing on a giant Iranian flag during the funeral of Alireza Tangsiri, commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards’ navy, alongside others killed in US-Israeli strikes on Iran at Enghelab Square in Tehran on April 1, 2026.
– | Afp | Getty Images
Trump on Saturday canceled plans for his son-in-law Jared Kushner and special envoy Steve Witkoff to meet with their Iranian counterparts in Pakistan. “Too much time wasted on traveling, too much work!” he wrote in a Truth Social post, while asserting the U.S. still has “all the cards.”
Trump announced the decision after Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi had departed Islamabad after only speaking with Pakistani officials, Reuters reported.
After sending the social media post, Trump reportedly told reporters that Iran had followed up with a “much better” offer, without saying what it contained.
“They gave us a paper that should have been better. And interestingly, immediately, when I canceled it, within 10 minutes, we got a new paper that was much better,” Trump said before boarding Air Force One on Saturday, Bloomberg reported.
The cancellation ended immediate prospects for a second round of peace talks with Iran. Two weeks earlier, Kushner, Witkoff and Vice President JD Vance traveled to Islamabad and spent 21 hours negotiating with Iran, but left the country without a deal.
Vance was not included in the latest travel plans.
A U.S.-Iran ceasefire remains in effect after Trump unilaterally extended it last week. But the two sides throughout the truce have continued to jockey for advantage over each other, with the Strait of Hormuz emerging as the main battleground.
The strait, a vital shipping route that in normal times ferries 20% of the world’s oil, remains Iran’s main source of leverage in the ongoing conflict. Tehran effectively closed the passage through force, with just a small fraction of prewar ship traffic making it through. The de facto closure has sent oil prices spiraling, leading to higher prices for gasoline and other products in the U.S. and around the world.
Trump has responded with a naval blockade of Iranian ports in the region. At least 38 ships have been stopped or turned around so far, U.S. Central Command said Sunday night.
This is developing news. Please check back for updates.
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