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BAGHDAD: Iran said on Wednesday it had received a US response to its latest proposal to resurrect the \u200bcollapsed ceasefire in the Gulf, days after President Donald Trump said he had rejected it.<\/strong><\/p>\n Iran\u2019s allies were celebrating on Wednesday after Washington withdrew the last of its forces from neighbouring Iraq, \u200cwhere 4,500 US troops died in the biggest US war of the century. More than 200,000 Iraqi civilians were killed in chaos unleashed after US forces toppled dictator Saddam Hussein in 2003.<\/span><\/p>\n Tehran views the pullout as a victory for its \u201caxis of resistance\u201d of allied armed groups, and a step towards its aim of driving US forces out of the region.<\/span><\/p>\n With the US-Israeli war against Iran now entering its eighth month, Iran put forward a proposal last week under which the United States would \u200blift its blockade of Iranian ports and Iran would reopen the disrupted Strait of Hormuz within seven days.<\/span><\/p>\n Trump said on Sunday he had rejected the proposal, although Iran\u2019s Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi \u200bsaid Tehran had not received a formal rejection. In a post on X on Wednesday, an Iranian government spokesperson said Araqchi had conveyed a US response \u2060to the Iranian government.<\/span><\/p>\n Iran says its plan aims to restore an interim agreement which collapsed weeks after it was signed by Trump and Iran\u2019s President Masoud Pezeshkian in June.<\/span><\/p>\n Last week, Qatari mediators shuttled between US \u200band Iranian envoys in New York on the sidelines of a meeting of the United Nations, the first proximity talks between the warring sides since the ceasefire unravelled.<\/span><\/p>\n An official briefed on the talks, who is not \u200bIranian and spoke to Reuters on condition of anonymity, said the Qataris had briefed Araqchi on the US response on Tuesday when Araqchi stopped off in Doha on his way home from New York. According to the official, the sides largely agree about the steps that are needed but still disagree about the order in which to take them.<\/span><\/p>\n Iran wants an eventual deal to grant it control over the Strait of Hormuz, the world\u2019s most important oil shipping route, which runs past \u200bits coast.<\/span><\/p>\n Shipping through the strait has increased in recent weeks, with shippers charging high fees to brave the risk of attacks. But flows of crude oil, refined products and natural gas remain substantially disrupted. In \u200bthe latest incidents, Britain\u2019s UKMTO maritime security body reported on Wednesday that two ships had been hit by projectiles the previous day.<\/span><\/p>\n US and Iraqi officials announced the withdrawal of the last \u200cAmerican troops from \u2060bases in Iraq on Wednesday, fulfilling a plan agreed in 2024 under President Joe Biden and carried out by the Trump administration while it wages war with Iran next door.<\/span><\/p>\n The withdrawal was celebrated by Iran and its allies. It marked an \u201chistoric victory for the Iraqi Islamic resistance groups and honorable Iraqis, and a crushing defeat for the American project,\u201d said Abu Mojtaba al-Yasiri, a commander in the Islamic Resistance in Iraq, an umbrella group of Iran-backed armed factions.<\/span><\/p>\n Iraq, which the United States invaded in 2003, has a Shi\u2019ite majority like Iran, and Tehran has established broad political and military influence there.<\/span><\/p>\n The country has frequently become a proxy battlefield between \u200bthe United States and Iran. Of the 18 US \u200bservice members listed as killed since Trump \u2060launched \u201cOperation Epic Fury\u201d in February, seven died in Iraq. Washington blames Iran-backed groups in Iraq for striking neighbouring countries, most recently knocking out a big Saudi oil pipeline three weeks ago.<\/span><\/p>\n The US withdrawal raises \u201cthe possibility that Iran\u2019s proxies will feel increasingly empowered in the absence of a Western military presence,\u201d said Baghdad-based political analyst \u200bAhmed Younis. \u201cThese groups may attempt to expand their role in shaping state policies and consolidating their presence within key institutions.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n At home in the United States, \u200bpolls show the Iran war was \u2060unpopular from the outset. The disruption to global energy supplies and resulting surge in fuel prices have hurt Trump\u2019s Republicans, trying to hang on to both houses of Congress in legislative elections five weeks away.<\/span><\/p>\n Iran\u2019s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps urged Americans on Tuesday to vote out Trump\u2019s allies.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cRemove from power the evil, deceitful, and violent politicians who are responsible for America\u2019s current state,\u201d they wrote in a 26-page letter to US voters. \u201cMake sure your politicians understand \u2060that the world \u200bhas changed.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n The war has intensified an economic crisis inside Iran, but Tehran has retained the ability to strike its neighbours and \u200bmenace ships in the strait, where a fifth of global oil transited before the war. Trump says the war will be over soon and Iran will ultimately surrender.<\/span><\/p>\nUS WITHDRAWAL SEEN IN IRAQ AS DEFEAT FOR WASHINGTON<\/span><\/h2>\n