Day 60 of the Iran war produced the most significant White House deliberation on the conflict since the original ceasefire decision on April 7. President Trump gathered his national security team in the Situation Room on Tuesday morning to formally review Iran’s new peace proposal. The outcome of that review will determine the war’s next phase.
What Was Reviewed
US President Donald Trump’s national security team is reviewing an Iranian peace plan to halt the war and open the Strait of Hormuz, while postponing talks on its nuclear programme.
President Donald Trump and his national security team on Monday discussed Iran’s proposal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz if the US lifts its blockade and the war ends, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt confirmed.
The proposal would postpone negotiations on Tehran’s nuclear ambitions for a later date. “I will confirm the president has met with his national security team this morning,” Leavitt said at a press briefing when asked about the reports. It remains unclear if Trump, who has vowed not to lift the blockade until a deal with Iran is “100% complete,” will entertain the reported offer to end the two-month-old war.
Iran gave the US a new proposal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz and end the war, with nuclear negotiations postponed for a later stage, according to a US official and two sources with knowledge. The new proposal, given to the US via the Pakistani mediators, focuses on solving the crisis over the strait and the US blockade, while deferring the question of Iran’s enriched uranium and enrichment programme entirely.
Why Trump Is Unlikely to Accept
CNN, citing two sources familiar with the matter, said Trump was unlikely to accept the proposal, reporting that lifting the US blockade of Iranian ports without resolving concerns over Tehran’s nuclear programme would weaken Washington’s leverage.
The White House remains opposed to any deal that excludes limits on Iran’s nuclear program. “As the president has said, the United States holds the cards and will only make a deal that puts the American people first, never allowing Iran to have a nuclear weapon,” White House spokesperson Olivia Wales told Axios. “Everything will be peanuts compared to that, if they ever were given a nuclear weapon,” Trump said Saturday night.
The leverage argument is real and well-founded: once the blockade is lifted and the war formally ends, Iran’s economic urgency evaporates. Tehran would enter nuclear negotiations from a position of restored sovereignty and revenue — not a position of collapsing oil storage and forced production shutdown. The blockade is the only instrument currently forcing Iran’s civilian leadership to overrule the IRGC on the nuclear question.
The Counter-Argument
Former US official Henry Ensher told Al Jazeera that Trump may separate nuclear talks from efforts to reopen the vital trade route, calling such a move a potential “strategic victory for Iran” but necessary given the strain on the global economy. “The top of the agenda has to be reopening the Strait of Hormuz,” he said. Gulf states align with Iran on Hormuz: Gulf nations are likely to welcome Tehran’s peace proposal to end the war without negotiating a new nuclear deal.
Araghchi made it clear to the Pakistani, Egyptian, Turkish and Qatari mediators over the weekend that there’s no consensus inside the Iranian leadership about how to address US demands. One source said Trump’s team would discuss the stalemate in the negotiations and potential next steps.
The counter-argument is economic and political: at $107 Brent, $4.11 US gas, and with UN Secretary-General Guterres warning of a global food emergency, the cost of maintaining the blockade is climbing for the US side too. Every week the war continues without resolution is another week of elevated gas prices ahead of the 2026 midterms. The political clock for Trump is running as surely as the economic clock is running for Iran.
