Conflicting reports emerged on September 22 over whether Iran had offered to reopen the Strait of Hormuz within seven days under specific conditions.
Reuters reported earlier in the day, citing a senior Iranian official, that Tehran could reopen the strait within seven days if the United States eased military pressure and lifted what the official described as a blockade on Iranian ports. The same source said Iran's delegation in New York had authority to pursue diplomatic contacts with Washington.
Later, Iran's semi-official Fars News Agency cited Iranian sources as rejecting the Reuters and Kyodo reports, describing them as false and baseless. The denial creates a direct conflict between the earlier anonymous-source report and the later Iranian-source account.
No public, signed or jointly confirmed U.S.-Iran agreement to reopen the Strait of Hormuz has been announced.
Oil prices fell sharply after the initial report, with Reuters saying Brent and WTI touched their lowest levels in about two weeks as markets priced in the possibility of improved Gulf supply. The move occurred before the later denial; no reopening agreement had been announced.
Commercial traffic through the strait remains severely disrupted. Separate preliminary shipping data showed only two trackable commodity vessels crossed on Monday, down from 10 a day earlier. Ships operating without visible Automatic Identification System signals may not be fully captured in those figures.
No jointly confirmed agreement to reopen the strait had been announced after the conflicting reports.