Tehran says it received official US response

Iranian authorities said on Wednesday they received the official US response to their proposal to end the Middle East conflict, state media reported, days after US President Donald Trump rejected the plan.

"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, without specifying the content of the reply.

"We will make every effort to bring the agreement to fruition and will firmly stand up for the rights of the Iranian people," Pezeshkian said.

"The agreement must now be based on a win-win strategy."

Diplomatic efforts gained traction on the sidelines of last week's United Nations General Assembly in New York.

Iran said it has put forward seven conditions for ending hostilities and reopening the strategic Strait of Hormuz, a vital route for oil and gas exports. It put forward a peace proposal featuring a seven-day timeline to reopen the strait and pause hostilities.

Still, the two sides have yet to strike a deal to reopen the strategic waterway, through which 20 percent of the world's oil and liquefied natural gas flowed before fighting erupted in late February.

Trump previously rejected the proposal, prompting ongoing Qatari shuttle diplomacy.

Qatar said on Tuesday that meetings and contacts aimed at bridging differences between the United States and Iran are continuing, with Doha exchanging messages between the two sides and seeking to build common ground toward a peaceful settlement.

Majed Al Ansari, spokesman for Qatar's Foreign Ministry, said at the ministry's weekly media briefing that a number of meetings and exchanges of messages had taken place in recent days, including meetings in New York.

"The effort now is focused on building common ground between the parties," Al Ansari said.

The main disagreement is over the sequencing of the plan, which aims to build trust and return to an enhanced version of a US-Iran memorandum of understanding signed in June, an official briefed on the talks between Araghchi and Qatari mediators told Reuters.

During Trump's 2024 campaign, he pledged to wrap up ongoing conflicts, bring down inflation and not launch any new wars. Yet the Iran conflict, which the US launched alongside Israel, has pushed up global fuel costs and fueled wider instability across the Middle East.

A recent Reuters/Ipsos poll found only 17 percent of respondents approved of Trump's handling of the cost of living — the top issue US people say will determine how they vote in November. Just 34 percent approved of the strikes on Iran.

Trump has said the conflict with Iran will end "very soon" but offered no concrete road map.

During a speech in Washington, Trump said Iran is "failing very badly" and reiterated his claim that the country will "not have a nuclear weapon". "That'll be over with very soon," he said. "They will not have a nuclear weapon, and oil prices are going to be tumbling down just like they were before I had to make that little excursion to the Islamic Republic of Iran."

Fighting has subsided in recent weeks, though the strikes around the strait continue.

Iran's Revolutionary Guards said on Wednesday that they have been striking small vessels that try to pass through the strait.

"We have been striking ships for quite some time now — specifically the small vessels I mentioned that attempt to pass," Guards spokesman Hossein Mohebi told state TV.

The US, meanwhile, has stepped up its economic warfare against Iran, imposing sanctions on Iranian airlines.

Oil prices climb

Global oil prices climbed on Wednesday after Trump ruled out easing sanctions on Iran. Brent crude futures rose more than 1.1 percent to $103.73 in morning trade, on track for a monthly gain of roughly 14 percent — its steepest monthly rise since July.

Authorities in the United Arab Emirates on Wednesday announced the country's gasoline and diesel prices for October, with gas set to rise by as much as 16.6 percent month-on-month.

Meanwhile, fighting in Yemen has intensified across the southwestern part of the country after the Houthi group seized the strategic port city of Mocha and Mayyun Island in the Bab al-Mandab Strait earlier last month.

The Houthis said on Tuesday that Saudi warplanes carried out 35 airstrikes across five Yemeni provinces over the past 24 hours, as fighting continued between the Houthis and Yemeni government forces on several fronts.

Saudi Arabia has yet to comment on the latest Houthi claims.

Agencies and Xinhua contributed to this story.

Contact the writers at cuihaipei@chinadaily.com.cn