Trump Rejects Iran's Hormuz Plan as Rubio Expels Delegation

President Trump has rejected an Iranian proposal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz within seven days, a decision delivered hours after Secretary of State Marco Rubio ordered Iran’s United Nations delegation to leave the country, according to NBC News and The Hill.

The twin developments mark the collapse of the latest diplomatic track between Washington and Tehran, which had been working through Qatari intermediaries on a staged plan to reopen the strait and resume direct talks.

What Iran offered

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Tehran’s proposal called for a sequenced, seven-day process: initial confidence-building measures within four to five days, reopening of the Strait of Hormuz to normal traffic on the sixth day, and the start of direct U.S.-Iran talks on the seventh, according to Al Jazeera. Araghchi said the offer was conditioned on the United States lifting its naval posture around Iranian ports, waiving sanctions on Iranian oil sales, and agreeing to a ceasefire that would extend to Lebanon.

Qatari mediators carried the proposal to Washington and returned with the U.S. response, meeting Araghchi’s delegation in Doha on September 29, Al Jazeera reported. Officials on both sides described the core disagreement as one of sequencing — which side would act first, and in what order the steps outlined in the two countries’ June memorandum of understanding would be implemented — rather than a dispute over the substance of the plan itself.

Trump’s rejection

Trump dismissed the proposal while speaking to reporters outside the White House, saying Iran wanted a deal “because it was losing so badly” and that the terms Tehran was seeking were “not acceptable,” according to NBC News. He added that he would welcome an agreement on different terms but gave no indication talks would resume soon.

Rubio’s order to the Iranian delegation came separately, after negotiations in New York tied to the UN General Assembly session stalled. Axios first reported that Rubio directed Iran’s delegation to leave the country; The Hill reported Araghchi and his team departed New York for the airport and boarded a flight to Doha in the early hours of the following morning.

Trump told reporters that renewed U.S. strikes on Iran after the November 3 midterm elections were “possible,” a comment both NBC News and The Hill framed as a signal that Washington is prepared to let military pressure continue rather than extend the current pause.

No pause in the Hormuz attacks

The diplomatic breakdown comes as attacks on commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz have continued without interruption. A Kuwaiti-flagged tanker, the Kazimah III, caught fire on October 1 after a projectile strike, the latest in a string of incidents our desk covered in Kuwaiti Tanker Hit in Hormuz as Attacks Continue Into October. The collapse of the seven-day proposal removes, for now, the clearest diplomatic path toward ending that pattern.

Economic pressure has continued on a parallel track. The Treasury Department’s October 1 sanctions on Iran’s auto, rail and steel sectors, detailed in Treasury Sanctions Iran’s Auto, Rail and Steel Networks, landed the same day Rubio moved against Iran’s delegation, reinforcing a pattern of simultaneous economic and diplomatic pressure. The U.S. military has also expanded its regional footprint, with a third carrier strike group heading toward the Gulf, as covered in US Sends Third Carrier Toward Gulf Amid Iran Troop Buildup.

Markets watching for the next move

Oil markets had already been pricing in the possibility that talks would fail. Brent crude fell to $99.68 a barrel on October 2, down 2.57 percent on the day, according to Trading Economics, after a brief pullback in geopolitical risk premium tied to hopes for a near-term deal. Analysts polled by Reuters in September put the average 2026 Brent price at $89.05 a barrel, up from $85.08 in August, reflecting a steady upward revision as expectations for a quick reopening of the strait have faded.

With the seven-day plan now rejected and Iran’s negotiating team expelled from New York, traders and shippers are left without a clear diplomatic signal on when, or whether, normal transit through Hormuz might resume. Neither the State Department nor Iran’s foreign ministry had announced a new round of talks as of this writing.