- White House Dismisses Seven-Day Plan to Reopen Strait of Hormuz, Threatens Resumed Bombing
- Traders Fear Shipping Paralysis at Vital Chokepoint Will Drive Up Fuel Import Landing Costs
Global crude benchmarks and domestic retail fuel projections face fresh price pressures after US President Donald Trump rejected a seven-day truce proposed by Tehran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz.
The refusal leaves the world’s most critical energy transit artery shut, renewing fears of supply shocks that threaten to push up international crude prices and lift the landing cost of imported petrol.
Speaking to reporters outside the White House on Saturday, Trump dismissed the diplomatic offer brokered through Qatari mediators, arguing that Tehran was only offering concessions because military and economic pressure had left it cornered.
Trump said that while he remained open to an agreement, the current terms were unacceptable.
Reports by The Wall Street Journal indicated that the White House expects to resume airstrikes against Iranian coastal positions rather than scale back military operations.
The diplomatic collapse prolongs a seven-month standoff that has paralyzed commercial tanker routes handling nearly a fifth of the world’s daily petroleum consumption.
Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian, speaking to CBS News while returning from the United Nations General Assembly in New York, said the seven-day proposal had been prepared in direct coordination with Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei.
Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, who held talks earlier in the week with Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff, explained that the offer matched the terms of an earlier memorandum signed in June.
Under that framework, Iran pledged to clear shipping through the strait on the seventh day of a ceasefire, provided the US lifted sanctions on Iranian crude, unfroze overseas bank accounts, and ended its naval blockade.
Araghchi maintained that Tehran had presented a clear exit from the crisis, adding that the responsibility to stop wider military escalation across Lebanon and Yemen now sits with Washington.
The continued blockade drew sharp warnings at the UN General Assembly.
Saudi Arabia’s Foreign Minister, Faisal bin Farhan, cautioned that the international community has failed to protect the Strait of Hormuz and the Bab al-Mandab, declaring that Riyadh opposes using strategic shipping corridors as tools of political coercion.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov also addressed delegates, stating that Moscow was ready to work with regional partners to restore navigation in the area.
A previous truce signed between Washington and Tehran in June collapsed within weeks after Iranian forces fired on commercial vessels accused of straying outside designated routes.
Iran continues to require all commercial ships to obtain prior transit clearance, targeting vessels that refuse and drawing sporadic retaliatory US airstrikes along its coastline.
With Revolutionary Guards spokesman Hossein Mohebi insisting that Tehran will continue targeting non-compliant vessels until all its demands are met, energy analysts expect oil markets to price in a steep risk premium, directly driving up retail pump prices for fuel-importing nations.
