Tehran, Iran - Iran stood firm Sunday on its conditions for reopening the Strait of Hormuz, despite President Donald Trump's rejection of the proposal, leaving the Middle East war locked in a stalemate.
The waterway is key to the world's energy supply and is now central to the conflict between Washington and Tehran, which was triggered nearly seven months ago with deadly strikes on Iran.
Iran's plan called for a cessation of all hostilities in the Middle East, including in Lebanon, according to Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, and a return to the conditions in the ceasefire deal that fell apart a few months ago.
That agreement, which dissolved during fighting over Hormuz, called for the release of frozen Iranian assets, the lifting of sanctions on Iranian oil and an end to the US naval blockade.
"Our conditions are clear, and any move toward reopening the Strait of Hormuz is contingent upon these conditions being fulfilled. We will not back down from them," Araghchi said on Sunday, state broadcaster IRIB reported.
"We have never closed the door to diplomacy or negotiations, but at the same time, we have never backed down from our rights."
But Trump said on Saturday that he rejected the truce deal: "They want to make a deal where they open the Strait immediately because they're losing so badly."
His UN ambassador, Mike Waltz, accused Tehran of demanding too much: "This was, I think, a pretty cynical attempt to put something on the table that they knew was unacceptable. To ask for the release of the blockade, the sanctions, international sanctions, and access to billions in assets, just to talk," he told NBC News in an interview broadcast Sunday.
"I think it's kind of common sense that the president doesn't have a lot of confidence this time after we just tried a few months ago."
Iranian officials claim they seized a US submarine being used for "espionage purposes"
Araghchi, however, said the Iranians "are waiting for the mediators to convey the definitive positions to us, and we will make a decision based on them."
Iran's Revolutionary Guards meanwhile said that they seized an American submarine drone on Sunday in the strategic Strait of Hormuz.
It said the underwater vehicle was being used "for espionage purposes," adding that it was "now in the hands of the force's specialists for data recovery."
Washington and Tehran signed a memorandum of understanding in June that aimed to end the war, to reopen the strait and to launch talks on Iran's nuclear programme.
But the deal broke down shortly afterwards when Iran fired on commercial ships in Hormuz that it accused of deviating from its approved route through the waterway.