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Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth is set to testify before Congress on Wednesday for the first time on the Mideast war, as diplomatic efforts to end the conflict have stalled and the U.S. remains skeptical of Tehran’s latest proposal to ease tensions over the Strait of Hormuz.
Iran has blockaded the waterway, a key route for global oil and gas shipments, since the start of the U.S.-Israeli offensive two months ago, triggering major economic shockwaves.
U.S. officials did not dispute reports by CNN and The Wall Street Journal that U.S. President Donald Trump was skeptical of Iran’s latest offer to unblock the strait.
During a White House state dinner on Tuesday, Trump told Britain’s King Charles III and other guests that Iran had been “militarily defeated.”
He added that “Charles agrees with me even more than I do — we're never going to let that opponent have a nuclear weapon.”
Iran, however, rejected the idea that the conflict was over.
An Iranian army spokesman told state TV on Tuesday that Tehran had “no trust in America” and did “not consider the war to be over.”
“We have many cards that we have not yet used... new tools and methods of fighting based on the experiences of the past two wars, which will definitely allow us to respond to the enemy more decisively” if fighting resumes, Amir Akraminia said in an interview.
Efforts to end the war have slowed in recent days. Vice President JD Vance had been preparing last week to travel to Pakistan for new talks but remained in the U.S.
Iran’s latest proposal was passed along by Pakistan and reviewed by Trump administration officials during a meeting on Monday, according to Iran’s Fars news agency.
The plan reportedly laid out Tehran’s red lines, including on nuclear issues and the Strait of Hormuz.
Under the proposal, Iran would ease its chokehold on the strait while Washington would lift its retaliatory blockade on Iranian ports as wider negotiations continue, including on Iran’s nuclear program.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the Iranian proposal was “better than what we thought they were going to submit,” but questioned whether the Iranian officials behind it had the authority to negotiate after Israeli killings of senior officials.
In a Fox News interview, Rubio said U.S. demands to reopen the Strait of Hormuz meant “going back to the way it should be,” referring to the period before the U.S.-Israeli attacks.
“They're very good negotiators,” Rubio said, adding that any final deal must be “one that definitively prevents them from sprinting towards a nuclear weapon.”
Iranian Defence Ministry spokesman Reza Talaei-Nik said Washington “must abandon its illegal and irrational demands.”
“The United States is no longer in a position to dictate its policy to independent nations,” he said, according to state TV.
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Qatar, a U.S. ally that was struck by Iranian attacks despite its role as a mediator, warned of the risk of a “frozen conflict” if no definitive resolution is reached.
Oil prices rose after Qatar’s warning and reports that Trump was unlikely to accept Iran’s proposal.
Brent crude climbed above the level it had reached before the two sides announced a cease-fire in early April, trading at around $112. West Texas Intermediate broke $100 on Tuesday for the first time in two weeks.
Both contracts were slightly higher on Wednesday.
Trump is facing domestic pressure to find a way out of the war as prices rise, with midterm elections due in November and polls showing the conflict is unpopular among Americans.
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, who had earlier offered guarded support to Trump, said Monday that “the Americans obviously have no strategy” in Iran and that the war was “at the very least ill-considered.”
Trump later criticized Merz on social media, saying he “doesn't know what he's talking about.”
Violence has also continued on the war’s Lebanese front, despite a recently extended ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah, the Iran-backed armed group that drew Lebanon into the war by firing rockets at Israel.
Israel responded with airstrikes and a ground invasion.
For the first time since the ceasefire began, the Lebanese army said Tuesday that an Israeli strike had targeted its troops, wounding two soldiers in southern Lebanon.
Israel’s military had earlier warned residents of more than a dozen villages and towns to evacuate immediately, saying Hezbollah’s “violation of the ceasefire” was forcing it to act.
The military also said it had found and destroyed a large Hezbollah tunnel network used by elite fighters.
Despite Israel’s occupation of a strip of territory along the border, Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said his country “has no territorial ambitions in Lebanon.”
Once Hezbollah and its allies “are dismantled, Israel will have no need to maintain its presence in these areas,” Saar said.
A day earlier, Hezbollah leader Naim Qassem vowed that the armed group would “not back down.”
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