Iran’s ambassador to Pakistan, Reza Amiri Moghadam, told a seminar in Islamabad on Oct. 24 that Tehran had conveyed through Pakistan its willingness to reopen the Strait of Hormuz if Washington lifted its naval blockade, and that President Trump had rejected the offer by insisting the blockade of Iranian ports would continue. The message, he said according to AP, was passed during visits to Tehran by Pakistan’s army chief, Field Marshal Asim Munir.

Within hours an “informed source” in Tehran told Tasnim the opposite. Without naming Moghadam, the source attributed the story to Saudi Arabia’s Al Arabiya and called it “lies and fantasies.” “Iran does not accept any arrangement based on the equation of the Strait of Hormuz in exchange for the blockade,” the source said, adding that Iran is circumventing the blockade by its own methods and will ultimately break it, and that no new proposal has been given to the Pakistani mediators—directly contradicting the ambassador. Iran’s existing plan setting out its demands has already been conveyed to the United States and remains its position, the source said: “Until all of Iran’s legitimate demands are met, one of which is ending interference with Iran’s ports and maritime shipping, the insecurity imposed by the American enemy in the Strait of Hormuz will not be eliminated.” The source added that “the whole world knows very well that the cause and instigator of insecurity in the Strait of Hormuz is America’s aggressive and interventionist actions,” and that ending them is a demand shared across the region and the world.