Iran has declared that it will not bow to Washington’s terms after United States President Donald Trump rejected a proposal from Tehran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz within seven days, deepening a war that has gripped the Middle East since February.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Tehran had formally submitted the seven-day roadmap to the United States through Qatari mediators, offering to reopen the strategic waterway and return to nuclear talks if Washington lifted its naval blockade of Iranian ports, eased sanctions on Iranian oil exports, and agreed to a ceasefire extending to Lebanon.

Araghchi insisted the terms were consistent with a memorandum of understanding reached earlier in the conflict, and that Tehran would not abandon its conditions despite mounting pressure.

Trump dismissed the offer as unacceptable, telling reporters outside the White House that Iran only wanted a deal because it was “losing so badly.” He insisted the US retained full control over the Hormuz Strait, boasting that 29 ships had passed through the waterway overnight and that oil was flowing in “tremendous” volumes despite Iran’s efforts to choke off the passage since the war began.

“We’re winning tremendously,” he said, adding that while he was open to negotiating, Tehran’s proposal fell short. Hours earlier, he had posted an image on his social media platform relabelling the waterway “Trump Strait,” a taunt he has repeated throughout the conflict.

According to US officials cited by the Wall Street Journal, Trump remains skeptical that Iran can honour its side of any agreement and has told aides he is weighing a resumption of military strikes once America’s midterm elections conclude in November.

That prospect has hardened positions on both sides: hardliners within Iran’s establishment have criticised the June memorandum of understanding as too conciliatory, opposing any compromise on the country’s uranium enrichment programme or its contested claims over the strait, and are pushing for further confrontation with Washington rather than concessions.

The standoff is the latest turn in a war that has raged since 28 February, when a joint US-Israeli assault targeted Iran’s senior military and political leadership, killing then-Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei along with other top officials.

Iran responded with waves of missile and drone strikes across the region, and the conflict has since drawn in Lebanon, reignited hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah, and spilled into Yemen and the Red Sea corridor. Power in Tehran passed to a new hardline leadership under Mojtaba Khamenei, which has repeatedly claimed that Iran, far from being weakened, has inflicted lasting damage on American and Israeli military infrastructure across West Asia and “humiliated” both countries.

Iran’s armed forces have gone further still, warning that any renewed attack could see the front expand beyond the Persian Gulf and Red Sea into the Indian Ocean.

Seven months into the war, the conflict has increasingly settled into a grinding standoff. Analysts tracking the crisis note that Iran’s capacity to sustain further attacks is limited by a worsening economic crisis brought on by the blockade, even as Washington and its allies in the Gulf and Israel face their own constraints in bearing the continued military, economic and political costs of prolonged confrontation.

Tehran, for its part, shows no sign of an internal collapse, and continues to insist it will retain its nuclear programme regardless of military pressure or sanctions. At the United Nations General Assembly last week, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian told delegates that his country would “never bow its head,” rejecting US and Israeli accusations and blaming both nations for regional instability, even as an American delegation walked out of the chamber during his address.

The impasse over Hormuz continues to ripple through global energy markets, with oil prices climbing on fears that the war could drag on indefinitely, reversing a brief run of losses recorded earlier in the week. Gulf states have voiced growing alarm over the safety of shipping lanes, with Saudi Arabia telling the UN that no party should be permitted to weaponise the waterway for political leverage.

For now, both Washington and Tehran remain locked in position: Iran declaring it will not retreat from its conditions, and the Trump administration signalling that further military escalation, not compromise, may follow once the November elections have passed.