ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - US President Donald Trump said Sunday he expects further talks with Iran this week despite rejecting Tehran’s latest proposal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, as Iran said it remains ready for diplomacy while warning it is prepared for renewed war. “I expect more talks with Iran [this week],” Trump told Axios in a phone interview Sunday, noting that “they want to make a deal, but it is not the deal that I want to make.” Trump said he was “always thinking about” the possibility of resuming strikes against Iran, while two regional sources told Axios they expected another round of indirect US-Iran talks on Monday. The latest diplomatic push comes as Qatar and other regional mediators engage with both sides in an effort to advance negotiations. Iran has focused its proposal on reopening the Strait of Hormuz, lifting the US naval blockade and resuming nuclear talks. However, US President Donald Trump told Rudaw on Saturday that he has rejected an Iranian proposal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz within seven days. “I reject their proposal. They made a proposal, but I rejected it,” Trump told Rudaw's Diyar Kurda when asked about the plan. Meanwhile, Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Saturday that Tehran had yet to receive a formal response from Washington to its proposal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz. “We saw the first reaction from the US president, but nothing has yet been conveyed to us by the mediators,” Araghchi told journalists in New York, Iran’s state-run IRIB reported late Saturday. The Strait of Hormuz remains a central point in the negotiations because of its importance to global energy shipments. The Joint Maritime Information Center (JMIC) said Sunday that commercial traffic remained below its 2025 baseline, with independent tracking showing single-digit vessel movements in each direction, while noting that US naval data indicated an average of about 30 transits per day over the previous 72 hours. Araghchi and US Special Envoy Steve Witkoff held indirect talks in New York last Tuesday on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly, with Qatari officials passing messages between the two sides. Witkoff described the meeting as “constructive and promising” and said the mediators would continue their efforts.
