President Trump has rejected Iran’s proposal for a seven-day ceasefire and has told aides he expects to resume bombing Iran after the November midterm elections, according to U.S. officials. The rejection comes at a pivotal moment in the seven-month war, as Tehran’s economy buckles under an American naval blockade and both sides continue to trade offers through Gulf mediators even as the fighting remains paused.
Tehran’s proposal would have reopened the Strait of Hormuz and resumed nuclear talks in exchange for the United States lifting its blockade of Iranian ports, a blockade U.S. officials say is inflicting severe damage on Iran’s economy. Trump has said publicly that Tehran is “begging” for a deal that would come after the midterms and dismantle its nuclear program.
Privately, however, officials said Trump remains skeptical Iran will meet his demands and has told his staff he views a renewed bombing campaign as likely. Asked directly about the Iranian offer by a reporter on Saturday, Trump said, “I’m rejecting their deal.”
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi outlined the seven-day proposal this week on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly. According to Araghchi, the plan called for an initial phase lasting four or five days, followed by the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz on the sixth day and the start of nuclear talks with Washington on the seventh. He said the goal was to build toward a final agreement on subjects both countries agreed to negotiate.
The proposal also called on Washington to unfreeze a portion of Iran’s frozen financial assets and lift sanctions on Iranian oil exports. In return, Iran would end its attacks on shipping through the Strait of Hormuz. A U.S. official said Washington has told Tehran and its mediators that Trump has no current intention of lifting the naval blockade, betting that continued economic pressure will eventually force Iran into an agreement on terms favorable to Washington and its Gulf Arab partners.
The current standoff leaves the conflict suspended in what officials describe as a liminal space between active war and a negotiated settlement, one that now appears more likely to tilt back toward hostilities. Trump has declared victory repeatedly since the war’s earliest days in February, even as he alternates between diplomacy, airstrikes and tightening sanctions on Tehran. Officials cautioned that his position could shift again in the coming weeks and could be shaped by the outcome of the midterms.
The scale of any renewed strikes has not been determined. Officials said Trump is reluctant to launch another major combat operation, in part because the Pentagon wants to preserve a limited stockpile of munitions for other potential contingencies. Even so, Trump has previously ordered massive strikes to break diplomatic deadlocks with Iran, sometimes following through and other times stepping back from his most extreme threats.
Those threats escalated further this week at the United Nations, where Trump told the General Assembly he faced “a big decision” over Iran’s future. “Will a deal be made with Iran that lets them rebuild and create a far greater country than it ever was before, maybe one of the greatest in the Middle East or even the world?” Trump asked the assembled world leaders. “Or do I annihilate the Islamic Republic and do it quickly, never giving them a chance to kill and destroy people and countries again? Do I drive them into hell with no chance of survival and no hope of future greatness or generations?”
Trump went on to insist that electoral politics have no bearing on his Iran policy. “The Republican Party is running, and I’ll be helping them, but I am not running. I gave absolutely no credence and will not give credence through the election when it comes to Iran,” he told the assembly. “The only thing that does is that Iran will never have a nuclear weapon.” He has separately told Republican candidates to campaign as though he were on the ballot.
Even so, Trump suggested Tehran’s leadership was stalling for the same electoral reasons he denied factoring into his own calculus, saying he expects Iran will only strike a deal once results from November are known. “I believe we’ll make a deal right after the election because it doesn’t make sense for them not to,” he said. “They’re waiting to see how I do in the midterm election. What they don’t realize is that I’m not running.”
Diplomatic channels have not gone quiet despite the rejection. A U.S. official said Washington and Tehran are continuing to negotiate through mediators, including on the nuclear issue, and that an American-led effort to keep oil tankers moving through the Strait of Hormuz despite Iranian threats has reduced the urgency Washington feels to reach an agreement. Qatar and other regional mediators have been working around the UN General Assembly to revive talks between the two sides, and it was in a Qatari-mediated meeting Sunday that Iran first floated the seven-day pause.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio said a roughly three-hour session mediated by Qatar did not produce a breakthrough, though Iranian officials described the discussions as productive and said further contacts remained possible. Those talks reportedly included U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law and senior adviser, meeting with Araghchi under Qatari auspices.
Arab mediators said Iranian diplomats have floated a number of formulas to end the war and have acknowledged the depth of the economic crisis gripping their country. But the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, the paramilitary and economic force that has effectively run Iran since the war began on February 28, has signaled it will not entertain new terms and is prepared to fight a long war. The Guard is instead pushing to return to terms closer to the preliminary deal Trump struck with Iran in June, which offered relief from sanctions on oil sales, access to Iran’s frozen assets, and a role for Tehran in administering the Strait of Hormuz in exchange for reopening the waterway.
That June framework, known as the Islamabad Memorandum of Understanding, produced a brief ceasefire that later collapsed, and its unresolved terms have continued to shape both sides’ negotiating posture ever since. The war has strained Republican political fortunes ahead of November, with the Pentagon confirming 19 U.S. service member deaths and the Senate expected to take up another War Powers Resolution this week aimed at curbing Trump’s authority to continue the conflict without congressional approval.
Analysts said Trump’s calculus is likely to be shaped as much by domestic politics as by battlefield realities. Paul Musgrave, an associate professor of government at Georgetown University in Qatar, told Al Jazeera that Trump “doesn’t want to end the war on unfavourable terms” and that the results of November’s elections will likely help steer his policy going forward.
For now, the war remains in a fragile pause. Crude oil prices have continued to cool even as the standoff drags on, and Saudi-led coalition forces reported intercepting Houthi drones and ballistic missiles aimed at Saudi territory in recent days, a reminder that the broader regional conflict tied to the Iran war has not fully subsided even as the primary combatants weigh their next moves.