What is Iran demanding to reopen the Strait of Hormuz?
Iran said Saturday the Strait of Hormuz stays closed until the U.S. meets new war, sanctions, and compensation demands, even as Oman talks continue and commercial ships remain at risk.
Iran said Saturday the Strait of Hormuz will stay closed until the United States meets a long list of conditions, even as Tehran and Oman keep talking about a transit route through the waterway that once carried a fifth of the world's traded oil and gas.
Associated Press reported that Iran's Supreme National Security Council, in a statement carried by state media, said the strait will not reopen until Washington "corrects its behavior." Council secretary Mohammad Bagher Zolghadr, a Revolutionary Guard commander, said the United States must permanently end the war with Iran and its armed allies, lift the naval blockade of Iranian ports, withdraw its forces from the area, "completely compensate" Iran for war damage, lift sanctions, and "unconditionally" release frozen assets. The statement also said the United States must never threaten Iran again.
Those terms go far beyond a navigation fix. AP said the United States wanted an acceptable deal on the strait first before ending the blockade. Under the interim deal signed in June, a schedule to end sanctions and a compensation plan were supposed to be part of a final agreement, with frozen assets. A 60-day window to finish that deal ends in just over a week,.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said earlier Saturday that Tehran was close to a separate arrangement with Oman on navigation, "specifically the determination of a transit route." But he said reopening still depends on other conditions and blamed the United States for what he called a violation of the interim deal. Oman, a Gulf mediator, said the talks were continuing "in a positive and constructive atmosphere" and condemned attacks on ships in the strait.
The danger is not abstract. Emirati authorities said a vessel owned by Abu Dhabi's state oil company, ADNOC, was attacked while transiting the strait, and the UAE Foreign Ministry said Iran fired the missile. ADNOC said there were no casualties Saturday, but more than a dozen of its vessels have been hit by missiles and drones since the U.S. and Israel launched the war on Iran in February, with one crew member killed and 20 wounded.
Before the war, the strait was treated as an open international waterway. Ship traffic remains low. AP analysis noted that a deal formalizing Iranian control would reverse that norm and give Tehran leverage over a global energy choke point. Families feel that leverage at the pump and in prices for goods moved by fuel, freight, and oil-linked chemicals.
Watch whether Oman and Iran produce a real transit route, whether Washington answers the new demands, whether commercial ships can pass without being hit, and whether the June interim track survives next week. Until traffic returns and attacks stop, the strait remains a household cost story.
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