Iran's offer to reopen the Strait of Hormuz within seven days remains on the table, Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said on Sunday, despite negotiations that Tehran's own security chief now describes as stalled.

The waterway, which before the current war carried about a fifth of global trade in oil and liquefied natural gas, has been closed since the conflict between Iran and the United States began — a war now in its eighth month. Speaking to Iranian media from Baghdad, where he attended an Organisation of Islamic Cooperation meeting, Araqchi laid the blockage at Washington's door.

"Our situation is clear and based on the seven-days proposal presented to the US. They shared comments which we are reviewing, but our proposal is still on the table and if there is any honesty on the US part, which there isn't, the way to reopening the Strait of Hormuz is obvious," Araqchi said.

The timeline is specific. If Washington accepts Tehran's conditions, the strait could reopen within six days, with talks resuming the following day, Araqchi said. That is the fastest concrete reopening schedule on record from either side since the interim ceasefire collapsed.

What is blocking the strait deal?

Iran tabled its proposal in mid-September, after that ceasefire fell apart. Tehran later confirmed it received a US response, but last week Iran's security chief said negotiations had stalled because Washington failed to address all seven conditions for reopening the strait.

Those conditions, as detailed by Tehran, include:

• lifting the US blockade on Iranian ports;
• lifting US sanctions on Iran's oil exports;
• ending hostilities on all regional fronts.

Washington has refused to sequence the talks that way. A central point of disagreement is the US insistence on addressing Iran's nuclear program from the outset, rather than treating the strait's reopening as a first, standalone step.

US Vice President JD Vance sharpened that position earlier this month, saying Iran must make a "meaningful" reduction in its uranium enrichment capacity to satisfy US demands and end the eight-month war.

Tehran sees it the other way around. Iranian officials argue negotiations should initially focus on reopening the Strait of Hormuz — the chokepoint that before the war handled roughly 20% of the world's oil and LNG trade — and on restoring security in the waterway, leaving harder questions for later.

Why the sequencing fight matters

The gap between the two positions is procedural on its face, but it carries hard commercial weight. One in five barrels of oil and cargoes of LNG traded globally moved through Hormuz before the war. Every week the strait stays shut, that volume stays displaced, rerouted or deferred.

For Iran, the seven conditions tie Hormuz directly to the relief it wants most: open ports, oil sales and an end to regional fighting. For Washington, accepting that package first would hand Tehran sanctions relief and port access before any constraint on uranium enrichment — the exact leverage the US says it intends to hold.

Araqchi's framing on Sunday left little room for optimism in the near term. His remark that there is no "honesty" on the US side signals Tehran sees the American response to its mid-September proposal as substantive rejection rather than a counter-offer, even as he confirmed Iranian officials are still reviewing the US comments.

The eight-month war, the collapsed ceasefire and the seven unanswered conditions together suggest the strait's reopening is not a technical exercise in clearing a waterway. It is the bargaining chip both sides are positioning around, and neither has moved publicly since the exchange of proposals in September.

Unless Washington shifts on sequencing — or Tehran drops its insistence that sanctions and port relief come first — the six-day reopening clock Araqchi described stays theoretical, and roughly a fifth of the world's oil and LNG trade remains hostage to the deadlock.