Iran says it received US response to latest peace proposal 

Hind Al Soulia - Riyadh - DUBAI — Iran said on Wednesday it received a formal response from the United States to Tehran’s proposal to end the war and reopen the Strait of Hormuz, state media reported, days after US President Donald Trump rejected an earlier proposal from Iran.

“At today's cabinet meeting, the American side's proposal was presented to President Masoud Pezeshkian by Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi,” government spokeswoman Fatemeh Mohajerani told the official IRNA news agency.

The development comes after Iran had intensified its rhetoric on Tuesday, threatening to target infrastructure across the Middle East if its security concerns were not addressed.The latest exchange comes as diplomatic efforts continue to find a way to ease the conflict and restore shipping through the strategic waterway.

Iranian parliament speaker and chief negotiator Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf warned that Tehran could widen its response if it remained unable to export oil.

Iran's allies were celebrating on Wednesday after Washington withdrew the last of its forces from neighboring Iraq, ‌where 4,500 US troops died in the biggest US war of the century. More than 200,000 Iraqi civilians were killed in chaos unleashed after US forces toppled dictator Saddam Hussein in 2003.

Tehran views the pullout as a victory for its "axis of resistance" of allied armed groups, and a step toward its aim of driving US forces out of the region.

With the US-Israeli war against Iran now entering its eighth month, Iran put forward a proposal last week under which the United States would ​lift its blockade of Iranian ports and Iran would reopen the disrupted Strait of Hormuz within seven days.

Trump said on Sunday he had rejected the proposal, although Araghchi ​said Tehran had not received a formal rejection.

Iran says its plan aims to restore an interim agreement which collapsed weeks after it was signed by Trump and Pezeshkian in June.

Last week, Qatari mediators shuttled between US ​and Iranian envoys in New York on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly meeting, the first proximity talks between the warring sides since the ceasefire unraveled.

An official briefed on the talks, who is not ​Iranian and spoke to Reuters on condition of anonymity, said the Qataris had briefed Araghchi on the US response on Tuesday when the Iranian foreign minister stopped off in Doha on his way home from New York. According to the official, the sides largely agree about the steps that are needed but still disagree about the order in which to take them.

Iran wants an eventual deal to grant it control over the Strait of Hormuz, the world's most important oil shipping route, which runs past ​its coast.

Shipping through the strait has increased in recent weeks, with shippers charging high fees to brave the risk of attacks. But flows of crude oil, refined products and natural gas remain substantially disrupted. In ​the latest incidents, Britain's UKMTO maritime security body reported on Wednesday that two ships had been hit by projectiles the previous day.

In the United States, ​polls show the Iran war was ⁠unpopular from the outset. The disruption to global energy supplies and resulting surge in fuel prices have hurt Trump's Republicans, trying to hang on to both houses of Congress in legislative elections five weeks away.

Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps urged Americans on Tuesday to vote out Trump's allies.

"Remove from power the evil, deceitful, and violent politicians who are responsible for America’s current state," they wrote in a 26-page letter to US voters. "Make sure your politicians understand ⁠that the world ​has changed."