US and Iranian negotiators are exploring a phased agreement that could reopen the Strait of Hormuz in exchange for Washington lifting its economic blockade of Iran, Reuters reported Thursday, citing Iranian, regional and Western sources.
The emerging proposal reflects a problem that has repeatedly frustrated attempts to revive diplomacy: neither side wants to surrender its main source of leverage before the other acts.
Two Iranian sources, two regional officials and two Western diplomatic sources familiar with the discussions told Reuters the strait had become the central bargaining chip in talks taking place around the UN General Assembly in New York.
Iran wants relief from the US blockade, which has sharply restricted its trade and intensified pressure on its economy. Washington, meanwhile, is seeking the restoration of free passage through Hormuz, a crucial route for global energy supplies.
“One way forward would be to solve the crisis in stages,” a senior Iranian official said on the sidelines of the General Assembly. “The first would be to end the blockade and reopen Hormuz.”
A coalition of 80 countries called Thursday for the urgent reopening of the strait, accusing Iran and its Houthi allies of threatening navigation and disrupting international trade and energy supplies.
“We call for the full restoration of navigational rights and principles without delay,” Bahrain’s Foreign Minister Abdullatif bin Rashid Al Zayani said in a joint statement at the General Assembly.
But the US-Iran talks remain far from an agreement.
A senior European official said Iran had “a very long list of demands”, while the White House insisted that President Donald Trump was under no pressure to make concessions.
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian put responsibility for the repeated breakdown of diplomacy on Washington during a meeting with Dutch Prime Minister Dick Schoof on Thursday.
“We have been and remain willing to engage in dialogue, but if there is any advice to be given, it should be conveyed to the American side,” Pezeshkian said, arguing that previous rounds of negotiations had been disrupted by Washington and ultimately followed by war.
The difficulty for negotiators is therefore not only finding a sequence in which both sides relinquish leverage, but convincing each that concessions made by the other will last.
An earlier understanding reached in June collapsed the following month, leaving both sides wary of another temporary arrangement.
Trump has said he believes an agreement with Iran could be reached after the November 3 congressional midterm elections.
President Xi Jinping told Trump during their White House meeting Thursday that Beijing supported Washington and Tehran returning to the June arrangement intended to end the war and reopen Hormuz, according to China’s state-run Xinhua news agency.
Speaking at the 81st General Assembly on Wednesday, the president said Tehran was ready for dialogue but rejected "the language of force," called Donald Trump's words a sign of "the character of a bully and the logic of force," and held up photographs of the late Ali Khamenei and of schoolchildren killed in the strike on Minab in the war's first hours.
Three things drew the messages: the gap between the president's posture abroad and the state's conduct at home; the crackdown of January that he did not name; and the way he spoke.
'Only brave in front of us'
The most frequent reaction set the president's words in New York beside the state's words in Iran.
"The Islamic Republic wants dialogue with anyone stronger than itself," one wrote, "and bullies its own defenseless people."
Another pointed to Pezeshkian's repeated use of the word force: inside Iran the state threatens America, he wrote, and in New York it asks "why are you bullying us."
The president's own language on the January protests was not far from writers' minds. In August he called the protests a "riot" and described those who reported the killings as "cowards and traitors," remarks that had drawn an earlier wave of messages. On January 11, days after the killings, he had called the protesters "terrorists" and demanded a "decisive" response from the security forces.
One writer put it in a single line: for 47 years the Islamic Republic has been busy with terror, and now Pezeshkian comes to play the victim.
Another watched the delivery rather than the text. "People like Pezeshkian only claim power and swagger in front of us," he wrote. "From the trembling voice, the stumbles and the level of stress in his speech, it was clear how brave he is in front of real superpowers."
What he left out
Pezeshkian never used the word protests. The Iranians he described in the streets these past seven months were the crowds at the state's own rallies, organized by the Revolutionary Guards and the Basij, out at night, in his telling, to defend the country against people "America and Israel had incited and put guns in the hands of."
The millions who came out against the state, and the tens of thousands killed, did not appear in the speech at all.
A writer from Qeshm, the island in the Strait of Hormuz, said the president had repeated the state's version of the protests instead of speaking about Iran's own victims, including those killed on January 8 and 9 and in earlier crackdowns.
Others treated the speech as an occasion to list what it omitted: the protests of December 2017 and January 2018, Bloody November in 2019, the Woman, Life, Freedom uprising of 2022, the January 2026 uprising, and the poisoning of girls' schools in 2022 and 2023.
The messages came days after the UN fact-finding mission on Iran presented its latest report. Its chair, Sara Hossain, said the January crackdown had met protests with an "extremely violent" response, and that many of the violations, including killings and imprisonment, amounted to crimes against humanity.
Several writers said that Iranians themselves had been pushed to the margins of the speech. "Pezeshkian was more a defender of the Revolutionary Guards and of Palestine," one wrote, "than someone who wanted to say anything about the people of his own country."
How he said it
The third and most personal thread was the president's manner: his walk, his delivery, his command of his own text.
Many described his bearing as a street tough's swagger and compared him to Shaban Bi-Mokh, the Tehran strongman whose mobs helped bring down the government in the 1953 coup and whose nickname means "the brainless." Writers said his grip on the speech was so weak that a passerby pulled off the street and put at the UN lectern would have spoken more fluently and said more.
A writer from Tehran said he had been ashamed to watch Pezeshkian represent Iran, in a speech he found empty of manners, culture or "any diplomatic decorum."
"Why can't he speak properly?" another asked. "He talked as if someone had a gun to his head."
One writer compared the speech to those of Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi and said the level of language from the president of the Islamic Republic had left him astonished.
Several concluded that the delivery reflected the office. Pezeshkian, they wrote, has no authority of his own; he reads what is written for him and handed to him.
"That is why they made him president," one wrote. "The text they write for him usually has a fixed structure, and it is on file at the foreign ministry and the presidency."
Iranian customs records showed one delivery arriving on June 17, when Washington and Tehran signed a 60-day truce and China promoted its peacemaking role. More than a dozen shipments followed two days later, carrying over $6 million in parts usable in drones.
The findings put Chinese support for Tehran at the center of Xi Jinping’s Washington visit this week, alongside trade, artificial-intelligence safety and Taiwan. Trump told aides that preserving relations with Xi was a priority, the Journal reported.
Records supplied by ImportGenius, covering January 2025 through June 2026, listed thousands of shipments to Iranian companies and the defense ministry, including GPS devices, motors and aircraft engine parts. Many cited Article 119, which exempts defense imports from tariffs.
Days before war began on February 28, China delivered 300 tons of chemical compounds to the ministry. Trade initially collapsed, and April’s US naval blockade restricted supplies further. Iran responded by expanding air connections.
US-sanctioned Mahan Air increased flights from Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou to Tehran from four weekly in early March to about 27 by late April, FlightRadar24 data showed. It operated 39 China–Iran flights in September’s first week, twice its prewar level. Several were unavailable for passenger bookings. China services continued despite announced suspensions to Oman and Turkey.
CSIS researcher Kate Koren identified Chinese companies advertising sensitive electronics used in Shahed drones. Suppliers cultivated Iranian customers through trade fairs and Persian-language marketing.
Chinese chemical supplies also helped replenish missile production damaged by Israeli attacks in 2024. After reports of those exports in 2025, US forces raided a ship carrying dual-use components from China to Iran.
In a December letter, sanctioned Chinese company Haokun Energy said it had coordinated confidential export licensing for sodium perchlorate, used in missile propellant, and created a Beijing shell company for the transaction. The Journal verified the company’s registration but could not establish whether the deal proceeded.
Washington also targeted networks seeking newer Chinese shoulder-fired missile systems for Iran, which manufactures versions based on older Chinese designs. One unsuccessful effort sought delivery through Belarus to conceal Iran’s Center for Innovation and Technology Cooperation as the recipient. Tasnim separately published footage of IRGC personnel training with portable launchers.
Iran's biggest buyer
China became Iran’s dominant oil buyer after Trump’s 2018 “maximum pressure” campaign; the countries signed a 25-year pact in 2021. US lawmakers put China’s share above 80% of Iranian crude exports. Banks and shell companies have facilitated payments, including in yuan, US officials and other sources told the Journal.
One arrangement involved Iranian petrochemical sales to Egypt through Banque Misr’s UAE branch. After US objections to dollar payments, proposed transactions shifted to yuan through China’s Cross-Border Interbank Payment System. Washington intervened, stopping the plan, and later moved to restrict the branch’s dollar access.
Egypt and the bank said they were engaging US authorities; the bank affirmed regulatory compliance. Beijing suspected Egyptian officials had shared information with Washington, and Xi raised the matter in Cairo on September 1, the Journal reported.
US officials also linked Chinese satellite imagery obtained before and after a July 17 Iranian strike to the attack, which killed three American troops in Jordan. Washington had sanctioned three Chinese imagery companies in May.
Despite hundreds of sanctions, disagreements persisted inside Trump’s administration. Hegseth said China and Russia enabled Iran; Trump cited Xi’s assurances against weapons deliveries, saying: “I trust them.” Rubio said Chinese assistance had not changed the war’s trajectory.
July measures targeted Mahan-linked entities, including a Chinese sales agent. Late-August Operation Economic Outcast targeted a Chinese-owned tanker and procurement networks, but no major Chinese companies. Kpler recorded roughly four million barrels reaching China the following week.
Lawmakers from both parties urged tougher action; Senator Elissa Slotkin called for Iran to become central to the summit. Rubio promised frank talks, while Treasury and the White House defended their enforcement efforts.
China rejected accusations of improper support, citing export controls and opposition to unilateral sanctions. Hong Kong said it implements UN sanctions only.
