Iran Keeps Hormuz Closed, Sets Conditions for Reopening

Iran Keeps Hormuz Closed, Sets Conditions for Reopening

Iran has said the Strait of Hormuz will remain closed to shipping until the United States changes its position and accepts Tehran’s conditions for ending the war.

Mohsen Rezaei, the newly appointed secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, said on Tuesday that any agreement concerning the reopening of the strategic waterway would depend on Washington meeting Iran’s demands.

“As long as America does not change its behaviour and does not accept Iran’s conditions, the Strait of Hormuz will not be opened,” Rezaei was quoted as saying by the semi-official Tasnim news agency.

He said the United States must end the war, release Iran’s frozen assets and support an end to hostilities across the region, including in Lebanon and Gaza.

According to Rezaei, Iran’s demands have already been communicated to Washington through mediators.

He also said any agreement reached between Iran and Oman concerning the transit route through the strait would be separate from the wider decision to lift the closure.

“If an agreement is reached between Iran and Oman regarding the transit route through the Strait of Hormuz, this agreement will be a matter separate from the closure of the Strait of Hormuz,” he said.

Mohammad Mokhber, an adviser to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, echoed the position on Tuesday, saying Iran’s “punishment of the aggressor” would continue and the strait would not reopen until Tehran’s conditions were met.

The latest warning sent oil prices higher as markets reacted to renewed uncertainty over the future of the vital waterway.

Trump demands compensation

The development came as U.S. President Donald Trump introduced another demand in the increasingly tense exchanges between Washington and Tehran.

Trump said the United States would seek compensation from Iran for damage he attributed to the country over the past 50 years.

“We’re going to ask for money for the damage they’ve done over a 50-year period,” Trump said at the White House on Monday.

In an interview released later that day, Trump said Washington was weighing different options, including allowing Iran’s economy to deteriorate or taking much stronger military action.

He also described Iranian negotiators as “very devious,” while continuing to alternate between threats of further escalation and suggestions that a peace agreement could still be possible.

Hopes of reopening Hormuz fade

The latest statements have cast doubt on earlier hopes that mediation efforts could produce an agreement that would restore shipping through the Strait of Hormuz.

Pakistan and Qatar have been involved in efforts to mediate between the two sides. Pakistani Defence Minister Khawaja Asif had recently suggested that progress was being made.

“The signals in the last two, three days are that we are close to some sort of an arrangement,” Asif said in an interview with Bloomberg News.

The Strait of Hormuz is one of the world’s most important energy routes. Before the war, about one-fifth of global oil and liquefied natural gas shipments passed through the waterway.

Thousands of people have been killed in the conflict, mainly in Iran and Lebanon, since the United States and Israel launched attacks on Iran on February 28.

Iran has responded with attacks targeting U.S. assets and infrastructure in countries including Oman, Jordan, Kuwait, Israel, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia.

More attacks threaten shipping

The dispute has also increased pressure on maritime trade, with new reports of attacks in the Gulf of Oman and the Red Sea.

Yemen’s Transport Ministry said four crew members were killed on Tuesday in a suspected attack by Iran-backed Houthi forces on the Egyptian-owned cargo vessel Tihamah in the Bab el-Mandeb Strait.

If confirmed, the incident would mark the first deaths in a Houthi attack on shipping since the Iran war began. The Houthis have not claimed responsibility.

A container ship was also reportedly struck by a missile off Pakistan while travelling through the Gulf of Oman in what sources described as a suspected U.S. attack.

The Wall Street Journal reported that a U.S. official said a military helicopter struck the vessel after its crew ignored warnings from personnel enforcing a naval blockade on Iranian ports.

The United States first announced the blockade in April and reintroduced it in July after a June peace agreement with Iran collapsed.

The Houthis declared a maritime embargo against Saudi Arabia in the Red Sea on July 20, saying it was in response to what they described as a Saudi siege. Riyadh has denied that Yemen is under siege.

With Iran now linking the reopening of Hormuz to wider political demands, the future of one of the world’s most important shipping routes remains uncertain.