Iran says it will keep the Strait of Hormuz closed unless Washington ends military and economic pressure and meets a series of additional demands, even as Tehran and Oman near an agreement on a new maritime route through the strategic waterway.
By yourNEWS Media Newsroom
Iran said Monday that reopening the Strait of Hormuz remains contingent on the United States meeting a sweeping list of demands, despite Tehran’s acknowledgment that negotiations with Oman over a new maritime route are nearing completion.
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei said Washington must first reverse actions Tehran considers unlawful, including the U.S. military blockade of Iranian ports.
“It is up to the U.S. side to stop and make amends for its illegal and destructive actions,” Baghaei said.
The latest warning follows several days of statements from Iranian officials separating negotiations over a new shipping corridor from the broader question of whether the strait itself will reopen.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Sunday that talks over establishing a new maritime route had reached the “final stages,” but he maintained that even a completed agreement would not automatically restore normal passage through the Strait of Hormuz.
“Talks with Oman do not mean the Strait of Hormuz will be reopened,” Araghchi said Aug. 9. “An agreement may be reached, but reopening the strait depends on other conditions conveyed through intermediaries.”
Those conditions were outlined Aug. 8 by Mohammad-Bagher Zolghadr, secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council.
According to Zolghadr, Tehran is demanding that the United States end its war with Iran, remove the naval blockade, withdraw military forces, lift sanctions, release frozen Iranian assets, compensate Iran for war damage and refrain from making future threats against the country.
Iran has continued negotiating with Oman on the proposed maritime route while insisting that the technical agreement and the political dispute with Washington are separate issues.
The Epoch Times said it sought comment from the White House but had not received a response by publication time.
President Donald Trump addressed Iran’s compensation demand in a Truth Social post Monday and said any future negotiations should also account for Americans and Iranians he says were harmed by the regime.
“I see that Representatives of the Islamic Republic of Iran are asking for compensation for the damage done to them during the last five month Military Conflict (started because, THEY WILL NOT HAVE A NUCLEAR WEAPON), even though it was never mentioned in any of our negotiations or meetings!” Trump wrote.
Trump responded by demanding compensation from Tehran for people killed or wounded by Iranian roadside bombs and other conflicts.
He also said families of hundreds of thousands of protesters killed by the Iranian government during the past 50 years should receive compensation, including the families of 52,000 people he said were killed during the past five months.
“I have instructed my representatives to put this firmly into any, and all, future negotiations,” Trump said.
The dispute is unfolding under renewed U.S. military pressure on Iranian shipping.
U.S. Central Command said Aug. 9 that American forces had redirected 55 commercial vessels, disabled two ships and boarded two others as part of enforcement of the U.S. naval blockade against Iranian ports.
Washington reinstated that blockade July 14 after a memorandum of understanding between the United States and Iran collapsed earlier in the month.
The blockade was restored after Iran fired on multiple commercial vessels in the Strait of Hormuz.
CENTCOM also carried out strikes against Iran for 13 consecutive days in July before Trump ordered a pause in military operations to provide room for negotiations.
Trump told Axios on Aug. 9 that his administration was deliberately limiting the intensity of the diplomatic engagement.
“We are only semi-negotiating with them,” Trump said. “We are just watching Iran with its huge inflation and the fact they have no money.”
Trump said Iran’s economy was in “very bad shape” because of the U.S. naval blockade and suggested Tehran may be struggling to finance its military forces.
He compared the negotiations to a strategic contest.
“It will work out,” Trump said. “It always works out.”
The standoff over Hormuz comes as shipping threats are also increasing farther south near another critical maritime chokepoint.
The Iran-backed Houthi group recently threatened to disrupt traffic through the Bab el-Mandeb Strait in the Red Sea.
Yemen’s Defense Ministry said four military personnel and three civilians were killed Sunday when Houthi forces attacked Mokha, a Red Sea port city, using ballistic missiles and drones.
Thirty other people were injured, most of them civilians.
The attack followed the Houthis’ decision in July to impose a maritime embargo on Saudi Arabia and blockade Saudi vessels passing through the Bab el-Mandeb Strait.
The waterway connects the Red Sea with the Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean, making it another strategically important route for international shipping as the confrontation over the Strait of Hormuz continues.
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