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and Araghchi’s visit had fanned hopes for fresh negotiations over the weekend, until US President Donald Trump scrapped a planned trip by his envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner.

“The US approaches caused the previous round of negotiations, despite progress, to fail to reach its goals because of the excessive demands,” Araghchi said yesterday.

After nixing his emissaries’ trip, Trump told Fox News that if Iran wanted talks, “they can call us” -- though he has said the cancellation does not signal a return to hostilities.

Following their meeting, Putin and Araghchi both voiced their commitment to the two countries’ “strategic relationship”.

Araghchi said the war with the US and Israel had shown the world “Iran’s true power” and the stability of its governing system.

In a sign that back-channel diplomatic efforts were ongoing, the Fars news agency said Iran had passed “written messages” to the Americans via Pakistan spelling out red lines, including nuclear issues and the Strait of Hormuz.

US media outlet Axios -- citing a US official and two other sources -- reported that Iran had sent a new proposal to end the war centred on reopening Hormuz and ending a US naval blockade there, with nuclear negotiations postponed.

An unnamed US official and two other sources familiar with the matter told the outlet that Araghchi mentioned the plan during back-to-back visits to Islamabad, informing the Pakistani, Egyptian, Turkish, and Qatari mediators that Iran’s leadership has no internal consensus on how to address Washington’s nuclear demands.

The US has insisted that Iran dismantle its nuclear program and hand over all of its enriched uranium.

According to the Axios report, the proposal, which was delivered to the White House via Pakistani intermediaries, reportedly focuses on extending the ceasefire or even ending the war, as well as lifting the US blockade of Hormuz, a critical chokepoint accounting for 20 percent of the world’s seaborne oil trade. Nuclear talks would not start until the blockade is lifted, according to the reported plan.

According to Al-Mayadeen, Tehran has floated a three-stage framework: end the hostilities and secure binding guarantees against renewed attacks on Iran and Lebanon; establish a new legal regime for managing the Strait of Hormuz in coordination with Oman; and, in the third stage, address the nuclear issue.

According to media reports, Iran has insisted on guarantees of US non-aggression, lifting all the sanctions, control over the Strait of Hormuz, and recognition of Iran’s right to nuclear enrichment, dismissing US and Israeli accusations that it is seeking to acquire a nuclear weapon.

Iranian state news agency IRNA cited the report without denying it.

Meanwhile, the head of the UN’s maritime agency yesterday rejected the idea of imposing fees on ships passing through the strait.

“There’s no legal basis for the introduction of any tax, any customs, or any fees for on straits for international navigation,” IMO secretary-general Arsenio Dominguez said at a press conference.

Trump, meanwhile, was expected to hold a meeting with his top national security advisers later yesterday to discuss the stalled talks and how to proceed, Axios and ABC News reported.

Trump is facing domestic pressure to find an off-ramp as fuel prices rise, with midterm elections due in November and polls showing the war is unpopular among Americans.

However, contrary to the reports, Iran’s Revolutionary Guards have said they have no intention of easing their market-rattling chokehold.

Ebrahim Azizi, head of the national security commission in Iran’s parliament, told state television yesterday that a proposed law for managing the strait would make the Islamic republic’s armed forces the overseeing authority, with financial gains from the waterway to be paid in Iranian rial.

Gulf states are also suffering from the strait’s closure after absorbing weeks of Iranian drone and missile barrages that shut their skies and damaged their vital oil and gas infrastructure during the war.

Yesterday, the United Nations Security Council convened a Bahrain-initiated session in which dozens of countries jointly called for Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz fully.

France’s Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot told the Security Council that Iran must be ready to make “major concessions” in talks to end the crisis.

“There can be no lasting solution to this crisis unless the Iranian regime agrees to major concessions and a radical shift in its stance,” he said.