Trump Rejects Iran's Seven-Day Hormuz Offer and Tehran Says It Will Wait

Iran says it will wait for an official response from Washington after US President Donald Trump rejected its proposal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz within seven days, BBC News reported on Sunday. Trump said Tehran had made the offer only because "they're losing so badly".

That leaves the offer on the table and the strait closed — the worst of the three available states for anyone whose fuel arrives by sea.

Ethiopia pays for this in three places

A closed Hormuz is not an abstraction for a landlocked importer. It reaches Ethiopia through three separate channels, and they compound.

• The fuel bill. Ethiopia imports all of its refined product. Global crude above 100 dollars is already pressing on the import account; a Gulf chokepoint that stays shut keeps it there regardless of what demand does.
• Freight and insurance. War-risk premiums on Gulf and Red Sea routings are set by underwriters reading the same headlines. They rise on the threat, not on the closure, and they come down slowly.
• Djibouti. Effectively all of Ethiopia's seaborne trade transits the port of Djibouti. Anything that reroutes or slows Gulf shipping arrives at Ethiopian importers as berth congestion and demurrage before it arrives as a price.

None of these depend on the strait actually staying closed. They depend on the market believing it might, and a public rejection of a reopening offer is the kind of exchange that sustains the belief.

A negotiation conducted in public

Both sides are now negotiating through statements rather than through mediators, which is generally a sign that the mediated track has not produced anything either can sell domestically. Tehran's "we will wait for an official response" is a way of keeping the offer alive after it has been dismissed rhetorically. Whether an official response follows, and what it says, is the next thing to watch.

Open

Washington has not issued a formal reply to the Iranian proposal. No timetable for reopening has been set, and neither side has said what conditions would accompany one.

Sources: BBC News, 27 September 2026