War on Iran: Phase II: Day 29

Iran lays out new conditions for reopening the Strait of Hormuz. Its president says the country must move beyond a state of neither war nor peace. Yemeni Houthis claim an attack on a Saudi oil refinery. Here's what you need to know from the past 24 hours. Iran is setting a high price to reopen the Strait of Hormuz to commercial shipping. The Supreme National Security Council says the Strait will not fully reopen unless the U.S. corrects its behavior. And Tehran has laid out exactly what that means. An end to the U.S. naval blockade, the withdrawal of U.S. forces from the region, a halt to military action against Iran and its allies, compensation for war damage, the lifting of U.S. sanctions, and finally, the release of Iran's frozen assets. So if that's the price of reopening the Strait, is there any appetite to actually pay it? Well, Washington is showing little sign of backing down. U.S. Vice President J.D. Vance says the pressure on Tehran will continue. We've destroyed their nuclear program. We've destroyed their conventional military. Right now, we're trying to see if they're willing to make the kind of long-term changes that would be necessary to have a better relationship with the United States. And if not, that's fine, too. We're just going to keep on applying the pressure that we can apply and getting as much oil and gas out of the Middle East. Iran's President Massoud Faisal Shahan is still stressing diplomacy to end the stalemate. He is counting on talks with Oman to deliver a new shipping route through the Strait. Speaking at a press conference, Faisal Shahan described what he saw as a shortcoming of the MOU. In principle, a team should be formed to solve the shortcoming, not to fight it. Instead of sitting around and trying to solve it, we have to look at the details of how it should be solved or not. This is a continuation of the work that is currently underway in the negotiations with Oman. God willing, we will get to a point where we can overcome this state of neither war nor peace. Behind the scenes, the U.S. military is already changing how it prepares for its next war. A memo from the Pentagon is urging U.S. defense firms to ramp up weapons production and rush deliveries of missiles in short supply. Trump has repeatedly denied munition shortages, but The Washington Post reports that the U.S. Army is fast-tracking weapons development, aiming to cut years from the pipeline and field good enough systems in far greater numbers. The U.S. may be preparing for future fighting, but confrontation is still happening now in the Strait of Hormuz. Case in point, the UAE says an Iranian missile targeted an oil tanker operated by a state energy company, Adnok. And Hormuz isn't the only flashpoint. Yemeni Houthis say they carried out an attack on a Saudi oil refinery in the port city of Jizan on the Red Sea. Authorities say they quickly brought the blaze at the Saudi Aramco facility under control and extinguished the fire. These satellite images were taken by the U.S. Army.