Sep 28, 2026 · 15 min · 14 segments
President Trump rejected Iran’s latest ceasefire proposal but says he remains open to talks, as questions grow over whether there is any realistic path toward ending the war. British police arrested…
Lauren FrayerAya Batrawy
Leila FadelHost
Mara Liasson
Steve InskeepHost
President Trump says he rejected an Iranian offer to suspend hostilities for seven days and immediately reopen the Strait of Hormuz.
The president said the Iranian offer, quote, "would not be acceptable" and that Iran is, in his words, "losing so badly."
Joining us to discuss this and more is NPR international correspondent in the Gulf, Aya Batrawy.
So Iran's latest offer, which you mentioned, is basically that the two sides agree to something similar to the memorandum of understanding that they had agreed to back in June, and that deal barely lasted a few weeks.
So what Iran wants is the US to lift its naval blockade on its oil exports and to unfreeze billions of its dollars in foreign banks in exchange for reopening the Strait of Hormuz.
Now, Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi, he was on NBC's Meet the Press on Sunday, and I'd like you to listen to how he describes his country's position seven months into this war.
We are fully prepared for the war to be resumed, and I repeat, we stand firm in the face of any new aggression, even it comes to a doomsday war.
But at the same time, we are ready, we stand ready for diplomacy.
It is up to President Trump to choose.
So as you heard there, he talked about being ready for a doomsday war or for diplomacy.
Now, Trump says Iran is desperate to make a deal because US sanctions are strangling its economy, and he says that massive amounts of oil are already flowing through the Strait of Hormuz now.
They do swing from one week to another, but the most recent data by Kepler shows a seven-day average last week of around 13 million barrels a day of oil coming out of the strait.
Now, that's compared to around 15 to 17 million barrels a day of crude exports before the war.
One is that Iran can and still does attack ships transiting through that narrow waterway, so these ships are running dark with their transponders off to hide their location.
And that leads to the second point, which is that it's very expensive for ships to export oil through the Strait of Hormuz because of those risks without a deal in place.
President Trump says he rejected an Iranian offer to suspend hostilities for seven days and immediately reopen the Strait of Hormuz.
The president said the Iranian offer, quote, "would not be acceptable" and that Iran is, in his words, "losing so badly."
Joining us to discuss this and more is NPR international correspondent in the Gulf, Aya Batrawy.
So Iran's latest offer, which you mentioned, is basically that the two sides agree to something similar to the memorandum of understanding that they had agreed to back in June, and that deal barely lasted a few weeks.
So what Iran wants is the US to lift its naval blockade on its oil exports and to unfreeze billions of its dollars in foreign banks in exchange for reopening the Strait of Hormuz.
Now, Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi, he was on NBC's Meet the Press on Sunday, and I'd like you to listen to how he describes his country's position seven months into this war.
We are fully prepared for the war to be resumed, and I repeat, we stand firm in the face of any new aggression, even it comes to a doomsday war.
But at the same time, we are ready, we stand ready for diplomacy.
It is up to President Trump to choose.
So as you heard there, he talked about being ready for a doomsday war or for diplomacy.
Now, Trump says Iran is desperate to make a deal because US sanctions are strangling its economy, and he says that massive amounts of oil are already flowing through the Strait of Hormuz now.
They do swing from one week to another, but the most recent data by Kepler shows a seven-day average last week of around 13 million barrels a day of oil coming out of the strait.
Now, that's compared to around 15 to 17 million barrels a day of crude exports before the war.
One is that Iran can and still does attack ships transiting through that narrow waterway, so these ships are running dark with their transponders off to hide their location.
And that leads to the second point, which is that it's very expensive for ships to export oil through the Strait of Hormuz because of those risks without a deal in place.
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