The Strait of Hormuz will remain shut until the US meets the conditions of an interim deal signed with Iran in June, the top Iranian negotiator Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf said in comments published by state media on Tuesday.
These conditions include the US lifting its blockade of Iranian ports, lifting oil sanctions, releasing Tehran’s frozen assets and ending threats and military operations on all fronts, Ghalibaf told parliament.
The memorandum of understanding, clinched on June 17th, quickly unravelled over a dispute about control of the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow waterway through which a fifth of global oil and liquefied natural gas flowed before the war.
US president Donald Trump said the deal was “over” on July 7th and a week later Iran’s foreign ministry declared it “suspended”. Under the memorandum, Iran and the US had committed to negotiating a final deal — covering broader issues such as the fate of Iran’s nuclear programme — in a maximum of 60 days, extendable by mutual consent. A senior Iranian official told Reuters on Monday that Iran would now shift to a “fully offensive” posture due to the stalled diplomatic efforts to secure a permanent end to the conflict.
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“Iranian entities must be prepared to escalate tensions in the Strait of Hormuz and wider region, as Iran will be ready to make decisions and take action on difficult decisions,” the Iranian official said, adding that Tehran would conduct a “timely and precise” military attack to break the US naval blockade if diplomacy failed.
Asked by reporters on Monday whether the US was seeking to extend June’s interim agreement, Trump said no.
In one glimmer of diplomacy, media reports said Trump had opened back-channel discussions with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, which has become more powerful during the war and controls large parts of Iran’s armed forces and the economy.
Axios, citing two sources with direct knowledge, reported that former director of national intelligence Tulsi Gabbard spoke with an Iraqi Kurdish leader with close ties to the IRGC, and that through this intermediary the US delivered a message to IRGC commander Gen Ahmad Vahidi. Fox News later reported that Trump confirmed the report in a telephone interview. The Trump administration was concerned whether Iranian negotiators across the table actually spoke for the IRGC, Axios said, at a time when Reuters was reporting that Vahidi had become a pivotal figure.
Vahidi responded that he was aligned with the Iranian negotiators, Axios said. “I can’t go into the details of it, but I will say that the conversations between the US government and different areas of the Iranian government at all areas is probably more robust than it’s maybe ever been,” Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law and special envoy, said in a separate interview with Fox News Channel’s Trey Yingst on Monday.
Iran said point 5 of the memorandum of understanding gave it the right to manage the strait, which it shares with US ally Oman, while the US rejected that interpretation. The Iranian official told Reuters the US must meet the entirety of the memorandum’s provisions within a few weeks as a precondition for further negotiations.
Even as Iran projects resilience in the war, its leaders are worried that a threat of more economic punishment could increase hardships, reignite unrest and further erode the Islamic Republic’s legitimacy, according to three Iranian officials. Iran entered the war with high inflation, a weakening currency, energy shortages, sanctions and deep structural weaknesses, and must now contend with damaged infrastructure, disrupted trade, lost production and the cost of rebuilding.
Iran has separately been negotiating an agreement on managing the strait with Oman and says they are close to a deal. Trump responded to those negotiations with a threat against the Gulf state, a long-standing US security partner.
“If Oman gets in the way, we’ll bomb the shit out of them,” Trump told Fox News.
The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) received a report on Tuesday that a vessel was struck by an unknown projectile while transiting outbound in the Strait of Hormuz, causing engine room damage and a crew casualty, with the remaining crew being assisted by the Omani Coast Guard.
No environmental impact has been reported and authorities are investigating, UKMTO said.
The incident comes as shipping through the Strait of Hormuz remains severely disrupted, with vessel crossings still in the single digits, down from more than 130 a day before the war.
Thousands of people have been killed in the conflict, mainly in Iran and Lebanon. Iran has bombed US military bases and infrastructure in countries including Oman, Jordan, Kuwait, Israel, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia. Trump warned Americans in a speech at a rally on Friday to prepare for continued high fuel prices as a result of the war. - Reuters
