Iran Sets Steep Conditions for Reopening Strait of Hormuz
A tense standoff over the Strait of Hormuz is deepening after Iran set steep and wide-ranging conditions for reopening access and shipping lanes through the vital waterway, despite ongoing regional diplomatic efforts mediated through Oman.
Iran said it was nearing a final pact with Oman to define new shipping lanes between them through the Strait of Hormuz. Still, it reiterated that the U.S. must meet other conditions, including compensation and an end to sanctions and military threats, before the strategic waterway is reopened.
The strait, through which about a fifth of global oil and liquefied natural gas flowed before the conflict, has been effectively blocked since the U.S.-Israel attacks on Iran on February 28, pushing up oil prices and inflation.
The proposed arrangement being discussed would give Iran significant control. Iran wants control over inbound shipping through the Strait of Hormuz and visibility over outbound traffic, with the ability to intervene if necessary, under a temporary plan being discussed with Oman to reopen the strategic waterway, a senior Iranian source told Reuters.
The deal with Oman would set up new shipping lanes with an inbound lane to the Persian Gulf near Iran and an outbound lane near Oman, and would give Iran oversight of inbound ships. Iran is also vowing to bar U.S.
Navy warships from passing through the Strait of Hormuz as part of any agreement, pressing its goal of curtailing America’s decades-old military presence in the Persian Gulf.
Tehran has tied the actual reopening to a separate list of demands on Washington. Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei said talks with Oman on arrangements for navigation were progressing smoothly, with an agreement reached on a shipping route map, but Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi stressed that Tehran would not reopen the channel unless the U.S. met certain demands.
Mohammad Bagher Zolghadr, secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, said the U.S. would need to permanently end the war, lift its naval blockade, withdraw its forces, end all sanctions, free Iran’s frozen assets, pay war reparations, end threats and insults, and stop military action against Iran’s militia allies around the region before Iran would open the strait, according to a report on state news agency IRNA.
Zolghadr’s list, echoed by other officials, also includes compensation for damage caused in widespread attacks on Iran, halting aggression toward Iran and its Lebanese, Palestinian, Yemeni and Iraqi allies, removing the U.S. naval blockade in the Gulf, lifting sanctions and releasing frozen Iranian assets.
While not Iran’s formal response nor conditions raised by Tehran’s negotiators and the demands are obvious nonstarters for the U.S., the comments showed that the hardline Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps is setting high hurdles to a deal.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guard has said reopening is not related to the Iran-Oman negotiations, stating, “The reopening of the Strait of Hormuz is subject to the specific mechanisms and conditions of the Islamic Republic of Iran and is not related to the negotiations between Iran and Oman”.
The Guard’s spokesman said, “Whenever the United States accepts Iran’s conditions, the Strait of Hormuz will certainly be reopened”.
The U.S. has responded with its own pressure. Washington reimposed a blockade on Iranian shipping in the Gulf in July, a move Tehran said violated a June truce, and the U.S. military has denied Iran’s claims that it had closed the strait, saying the critical waterway remained open and U.S. forces were monitoring.
“Iran does not control the Strait of Hormuz,” U.S. Central Command said. A U.S. official said, “Once the deal is announced to restore commercial shipping without impediments, the United States will lift the blockade of Iranian ports,” with actions tied to Iran’s implementation.
For shippers, the outlook remains uncertain. A proposed deal that would give Tehran control over ships entering the Gulf is not easily workable due to U.S. sanctions and restrictive insurance clauses on any payments, and the International Maritime Organization said it was verifying whether the announcement complied with freedom of navigation.
Oil prices edged higher to $84.22 a barrel on Monday as optimism over a deal was tempered by Iran’s insistence the U.S. must satisfy its demands, after Brent had hit about $126 in late April amid disruption. #Iran Sets Steep Conditions for Reopening Strait of Hormuz# Crude Oil Prices Mixed as U.S.-Iran Negotiate Indirectly
