ERBIL, Kurdistan Region of Iraq – US President Donald Trump on Saturday said that Washington is rejecting a proposal from Iran to “immediately” open the Strait of Hormuz, boasting that the US already has “total control” over the vital waterway.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said earlier that Tehran will reopen the Strait of Hormuz within a week should Washington accept Tehran’s terms outlined in the June US-Iran memorandum, semi-official media reported on Saturday.

The minister announced the plan in a press briefing on the sidelines of the 81st session of the United Nations General Assembly in New York on Friday.

“We are winning tremendously, we have total control over the Hormuz strait. Massive amounts of oil are coming out of the Hormuz strait. Last night we had 29 ships come out. They wanna make a deal and I think that’s fine, I like making a deal too but that deal will not be acceptable,” the American president told reporters.

“And what they wanna do is immediately open Hormuz strait, you know why? Because they’re dying. You know why they’re dying? Because they have no money coming in, because they get their money from the Hormuz strait. So they outsmarted themselves,” Trump added.

Araghchi said that the seven-day timeframe will begin the moment the United States accepts the plan. “If this occurs tomorrow, implementation will commence immediately,” Iran’s semi-official Mehr news agency quoted him as saying.

Iran closed the strait after US-Israeli strikes killed the top brass of Iran’s leadership, catapulting the region into a conflict that persists today. The two sides remotely signed a peace memorandum of understanding (MoU) in June with Islamabad’s mediation.

The agreement collapsed weeks later when the US claimed Iran had struck a vessel in the Strait of Hormuz.

Iran’s main conditions in the MoU included ending military operations on all fronts, including Lebanon, lifting sanctions, and post-war reconstruction. One of Washington’s main conditions was free navigation through the waterway.

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said in an interview with CBS News on Friday that Iran would “abide by whatever we commit to” if the US accepts the seven-day proposal.

The Wall Street Journal reported earlier that US president had rejected the proposal and indicated that he expects to continue military operations following the 2026 US midterm elections in November.

In his address at the UN assembly in New York, the Iranian president asserted that Tehran will never “bend the knee” in the face of US-Israeli attacks, accusing the two countries of committing human rights violations and targeting of civilians.

State media reported that Pezeshkian has departed the US back Tehran after attending the UN session.