Trump Rejects Iran's Ceasefire Offer as Indirect Talks Continue Through Mediators

Seven months into a war that began with joint U.S.-Israeli strikes in late February, President Trump and Iranian officials are locked in a standoff over the terms of peace. On Monday, as indirect talks continued through Qatari mediators, Trump rejected an Iranian proposal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz—the vital shipping lane that has been partially closed since fighting began—as part of a seven-day ceasefire. "That deal would not be acceptable," Trump said, though he acknowledged wanting to reach some agreement. The rejection sent oil prices climbing above $100 per barrel, rattling U.S. stock markets and pushing gasoline prices toward $4.50 a gallon.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, attending the United Nations General Assembly in New York, framed the moment as a choice for Trump alone. Tehran, he said, stood ready for either renewed diplomacy or a return to full-scale fighting. "It is up to President Trump to choose," Araghchi told NBC News on Sunday. The Iranian proposal, submitted Friday, would have reopened the strait in phases over seven days in exchange for the release of frozen Iranian funds and assets, contingent on the U.S. meeting conditions outlined in an earlier agreement that had collapsed after several weeks. Araghchi said Iran would not back down from these demands.

Yet the talks have not stopped. On Monday morning, American and Iranian negotiators exchanged messages through mediators, Trump confirmed to reporters, though he offered no details beyond saying, "We're going to win." A U.S. official told CBS News that Trump is willing to grant Iran sanctions relief and unfreeze its assets if there is concrete progress on Iran's nuclear program—a position Trump himself denied on Truth Social, writing in all capitals: "I offered them NOTHING!" The official also noted that the two sides remain far apart on timing: who moves first, and when. An Iranian diplomatic source told CBS News the core problem is that Trump's actual position remains unclear, making it difficult to move from discussion to a binding agreement.

The blockade of the Strait of Hormuz has rippled through global markets and into the lives of ordinary Iranians. Oil prices, which hovered around $72 per barrel before the war, have nearly doubled. U.S. bond yields hit their highest levels in roughly two decades on Monday, and the S&P 500 fell 0.8% as investors absorbed the uncertainty. Economists warned that if the Trump administration follows through on considering a ban on diesel exports—a move Trump said Sunday his team was "very seriously" considering—gasoline prices could spike further, straining food delivery drivers and farmers already squeezed by inflation. Diesel had hit a record $6.53 per gallon on September 22 and remained elevated at $6.45 on Monday.

For Iranians themselves, the war's economic toll has become inescapable. The rial fell to an all-time low of 2.4 million per dollar on Monday as annual inflation reached 61.4% in August, with food prices up 128% from a year earlier. New U.S. sanctions on Iran's aviation sector, imposed this month, have grounded flights across the region on short notice. A 49-year-old woman named Mitra, who had planned to fly from Iran to Paris via Istanbul, found her ticket canceled and now faces a grueling overland journey through Turkey instead. "Some airlines are still selling tickets, but they keep getting canceled. It honestly makes us feel completely trapped," she told an AFP journalist, speaking under a pseudonym for fear of retaliation. She booked a flight to the Iranian city of Tabriz for about $75, then plans to travel by road for several hours to reach the Turkish border, staying in a hotel in Van while waiting to cross. "At this point, we're just hoping that we can actually get out," she said. "They might even close the land border."

The conflict has also ensnared civilians caught between the two sides. Naqaa Hamed, a Palestinian-American journalist who had contributed to Iran's state-run Press TV, was arrested by Israeli forces on September 15 at a checkpoint near Bethlehem as she returned from a reporting assignment for Turkish broadcaster TRT. She spent two weeks in Damon prison in Haifa under what her lawyer described as difficult conditions before an Israeli military court released her on bail of 8,000 shekels—roughly $2,600—on Monday. Her lawyer, Khaled Mahajneh, said she was released on condition she comply with future summons for questioning. Colleagues said Hamed had stopped working with Press TV about a month before her arrest and had become a freelance journalist. Israel considers Press TV a propaganda arm of Iran's government and is currently holding 36 journalists in its prisons, according to the Palestinian Prisoners' Club.

Meanwhile, British counterterrorism police arrested five men near RAF Fairford, a Royal Air Force base about 85 miles west of London that has been used by U.S. bombers to strike Iranian targets. The men were held on suspicion of preparing a terrorist act involving three trucks. Authorities are investigating a possible link to Iran, though as of Monday no conclusions had been reached about whether the plot could have been state-backed. Iran categorically denied involvement. Trump praised the arrests, telling reporters in Chicago on Sunday: "It was an amazing job. We had them under investigation. They were looking to do big damage to our fort. And working with the British worked out great."

Back in the negotiating channel, Araghchi said he expected a formal U.S. response by Tuesday through Qatari intermediaries. Trump, for his part, told Axios he expects talks to resume this week and suggested Iranian leaders are motivated by military losses. "They are losing so badly," he said, adding that "they overplayed their hand." He did not rule out resuming strikes. "I am always thinking about it," he said. The war, now seven months old, hangs in a state of suspended motion—talks continuing through back channels, markets volatile, ordinary people displaced or trapped, and the Strait of Hormuz still partially closed. What happens next depends on whether Trump and Tehran can find common ground on nuclear commitments and the sequencing of concessions, or whether the fighting resumes.