US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Monday that a reported recent offer from Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz under strict conditions is not acceptable to the United States or other countries.

Speaking in an interview with Fox News, Rubio said Iran has a different view of the strategic waterway than most of the rest of the world does: “What they mean by opening the straits is, yes, the straits are open, as long as you coordinate with Iran, get our permission, or we’ll blow you up and you pay us.”

“That’s not opening the straits,” the top US diplomat said. “Those are international waterways. They cannot normalize, nor can we tolerate them trying to normalize, a system in which the Iranians decide who gets to use them.”

Rubio’s statement came after Axios reported that Iran had proposed an agreement on reopening the strait and ending the war, while delaying negotiations on Tehran’s nuclear program for a later stage.

On Monday, Iran insisted it was still in control of the strait, a key pathway for the global oil supply.

Negotiations between the sides were meant to take place in Pakistan last week, during an ongoing ceasefire in the US-Israeli war with Iran, but the talks did not come together. According to Axios, Iran’s attempt to kickstart negotiations again by solving the issues centered on the Strait of Hormuz was conveyed to the US by Pakistani mediators.

US President Donald Trump was expected to discuss the Iranian proposal and other issues held up in the stalled negotiations during a Situation Room meeting with national security and foreign policy teams on Monday, the report added.

The path forward for negotiations remains unclear. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi signaled on Monday that Iran was not desperate for talks. German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said Monday that Iran was “humiliating” the US in the drama surrounding the talks.

Rubio : They cannot normalize, nor can we tolerate them trying to normalize, a system in which the Iranians decide who gets to use an international waterway, and how much you have to pay them to use it. pic.twitter.com/mHBfukvTz1 — Hiba Nasr (@HibaNasr) April 27, 2026

Rubio : They cannot normalize, nor can we tolerate them trying to normalize, a system in which the Iranians decide who gets to use an international waterway, and how much you have to pay them to use it. pic.twitter.com/mHBfukvTz1

— Hiba Nasr (@HibaNasr) April 27, 2026

Araghchi says Trump pushing for talks, Iran ‘stable’

Hopes of reviving peace efforts have receded since Saturday, when Trump scrapped a visit by his envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner to Islamabad, the Pakistani capital.

Araghchi traveled to Russia on Monday. In Saint Petersburg, he said that Tehran is looking into Trump’s........

© The Times of Israel