Iran says won't reopen Hormuz without US meeting all Tehran's conditions

Iran's Revolutionary Guards said on Sunday they would not reopen the Strait of Hormuz, vital to the world economy, until the United States met Tehran's conditions set out the day before, including compensation for war damages. Iran has imposed an effective blockade of the strait since the United States and Israel attacked in late February.

Why won't Iran reopen the Strait of Hormuz?

Iran's Revolutionary Guards said their strategy is to keep the strait closed until the United States accepts all of Tehran's conditions. They said the waterway has become a theatre of war for Iran rather than just a shipping route. Iran also wants to charge tolls for passage and has struck ships it accuses of avoiding its preferred route.

Continued attacks in the waterway, which was free to transit before the war, led to the collapse of an April ceasefire. Mediators have urged both sides to return to the terms of a June memorandum that set out a path for peace talks. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said discussions with Oman over transit and management of the strait are approaching their final stages, though he added that reopening Hormuz depends on other conditions and compensation for violations of the June agreement. He denied Iran was negotiating directly with the United States, saying the two sides were only exchanging messages through intermediaries.

What conditions has Iran set for reopening Hormuz?

Iran's security chief Mohammad Bagher Zolghadr laid out Tehran's demands on Saturday, including an end to what he called war and aggression against Iran and its allies in Lebanon, Palestine, Yemen and Iraq. He also demanded the lifting of a US counterblockade of Iranian ports, an end to sanctions, the release of frozen assets and compensation for wartime damage, according to Tasnim news agency.

Transit through Hormuz has dropped significantly as Iran continues targeting ships it accuses of skirting its preferred route. The United Arab Emirates' foreign ministry condemned what it called a hostile Iranian missile attack on an ADNOC tanker in the strait, which caused no casualties. Separately, the UK Maritime Trade Operations said a ship was hit by a projectile off Oman in the strait, sparking a fire that was later extinguished with no casualties reported. It remains unclear whether the two reports referred to the same vessel.

Oman's foreign ministry condemned repeated attacks on vessels transiting the strait without naming Iran directly. It said negotiations over navigation arrangements in the strait are proceeding in a positive and constructive atmosphere and urged against any action that could jeopardise progress. The earlier Iran-US deal, meant to serve as a starting point for a permanent settlement, had said Tehran and Muscat would negotiate future arrangements for the strait alongside other Gulf countries and in line with applicable international law, which generally forbids tolling in such waterways.

What other regional tensions are unfolding alongside the Hormuz standoff?

Meanwhile, Yemen's Iran-backed Houthi rebels said on Sunday they had struck a Saudi oil facility on the Red Sea coast, after Saudi Arabia said it had extinguished a fire at the site. The move signals the Iranian-allied group's attempt to threaten a second vital waterway alongside Hormuz.

Turkey's foreign minister said on Saturday he expects Egypt to join a joint defence agreement between Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan aimed at stabilising the region, calling Egypt a natural partner. Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said the countries already act as if they were alliance members, though he said the pact does not target any specific country and involves no written common threat. A drone struck US assets at an Egyptian port on the Mediterranean last month, the first drone attack on Egyptian territory since the Iran war began. Pakistan's foreign ministry said Friday the pact means an attack on any member would be treated as an attack on all, describing it as intended to strengthen collective deterrence.