Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, has presented a seven-day plan that would see the Strait of Hormuz reopened within a week.

Under the proposal, Tehran would reopen the the Strait of Hormuz and resume talks on its nuclear programme but only if the US lifts its naval blockade, waives oil sanctions and observes a ceasefire that includes Lebanon.

He ​told reporters at the United Nations: “The choice ‌now rests with the United States.”

“If ​the necessary ⁠conditions are met, ⁠the strait can be reopened and a ‌normal maritime passage restored within seven days.”

The seven-day clock will begin when the US accepts the plan, Araghchi added.

The White House has said it is having constructive conversations with mediators, but US president Donald Trump has said he is in no rush to reach a deal.

Britain will “not tolerate intimidation, threats or hostile activity on UK soil” from groups connected to Iran, foreign secretary Ed Miliband told Abbas Araghchi during a face-to-face meeting.

The encounter with Iran’s foreign minister took place on Thursday on the margins of the United Nations General Assembly in New York.

According to the Foreign Office, discussions focused on the war in the Middle East, reopening the Strait of Hormuz, alongside the UK’s “unwavering resolve to combat threats from Iranian-linked groups in UK soil”.

Gaza is suffering from the worst economic crisis ever recorded, a UN report has found.

Unemployment and poverty have surged across the strip leaving 90 per cent of working-age Palestinians jobless, leading them into “multidimensional poverty”.

The assessment, released by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) on Thursday, found that Israel’s military action in Gaza since 1967 has led to a “spiralling crisis” for the population that has severely worsened since Hamas attacks on 7 October.

The European Union is facing an energy price crisis as a result of the Iran war fallout in oil and gas markets, the bloc’s energy chief said on Friday in a letter, which urged countries to consider measures to curb energy demand.

“We are ​facing ⁠a price crisis ‌linking to a supply crisis,” EU energy commissioner Dan Jorgensen ‌said in a ‌letter to EU countries’ energy ministers.

While the EU is better prepared now than it was in winter 2021 when Russia squeezed Europe’s gas supplies by reducing deliveries, governments must step up preparations for this winter, he said.

“I ‌invite you to ​consider taking or continuing ‌to take measures ⁠that can sustain [gas storage] ⁠injections or reduce gas and electricity demand ‌for ​as long as ‌necessary,” Jorgensen said.

Iran will show no flexibility over its nuclear program even if the United States accepts its proposal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, which calls for steps including the lifting of a US naval blockade on Iranian ports, a senior Iranian official told Reuters on Friday.

The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the waterway would remain closed until “all of Iran’s conditions are met” by the US.

Under Irans proposal, Tehran has offered to reopen the strategically vital Strait of Hormuz. Within seven days, hostilities would end on all fronts, including Lebanon, the US would lift its blockade on Iranian ports, release Iran’s frozen funds and waive its oil sanctions, Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said on Thursday.

Washington has largely ignored the lingering disruption created by the Houthis around the Red Sea. But a wider conflict with Saudi Arabia could force them to intervene:

Saudi, Turkish and Pakistani military chiefs are to discuss help for Saudi Arabia as it faces attacks by Yemen’s Houthis, while Iraq further curtailed Iranian flights on Friday, in line with US pressure, and an Iranian official threatened retaliation.

The Houthis have launched strikes on the Saudi-backed government in Yemen and repeatedly fired into Saudi Arabia, disrupting oil flows from the world’s largest energy exporter, as part of a wider Middle East war that began with US and Israeli strikes on Iran on February 28.

The military escalation continued this week despite a push during the UN General Assembly in New York to revive diplomacy to end the conflict, which quickly spread to Lebanon and the Gulf in March before escalating in Yemen in recent weeks.

With talks stalled and during a lull in direct fire by the US and Iran, Washington had shifted tactics to extend financial sanctions by targeting companies from third countries that do business with Iranian firms through “secondary sanctions”.