Iran has set six conditions for fully reopening the Strait of Hormuz, including an end to US threats and withdrawal of US forces from around the country, as President Masoud Pezeshkian said Tehran believes now is the best time to reach an agreement with Washington.
Mohammad Bagher Zolghadr, secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, said the strategic waterway would remain closed until Washington “corrects its behaviour”, according to a statement published by Iran’s state broadcaster IRIB.
The conditions include an end to US threats against Iran and what Zolghadr described as insults to the country’s national and religious values.
They also call for a permanent end to attacks against Iran and its allies in Lebanon, Palestine, Yemen and Iraq, the lifting of a US naval blockade and withdrawal of US naval and air forces from around Iran.
Iran is also demanding compensation for damage from what Zolghadr called two “imposed wars”, the lifting of sanctions and the unconditional release of frozen Iranian assets.
The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said reopening the strait depended on Washington accepting the conditions and was separate from negotiations between Iran and Oman.
“Whenever the United States accepts Iran’s conditions, the Strait of Hormuz will certainly be reopened,” IRGC spokesperson Hossein Mohebbi was quoted as saying by the semi-official Tasnim news agency.
The conditions broaden the terms Iran now says must be met before the waterway can reopen, going beyond issues covered by a June 17 US-Iran memorandum of understanding.
Reuters reported that the June memorandum treated several of the issues as part of a reciprocal and phased process. Zolghadr is now presenting them as conditions that Washington must meet before the strait can fully reopen.
That position also differs from Washington’s latest stance.
A US official told Reuters on Friday that the blockade of Iranian ports would be lifted once commercial shipping through Hormuz was restored “without impediments”, with US steps tied to Iran fulfilling its commitments.
Meanwhile, Pezeshkian has backed efforts to reach an agreement, saying at a news conference broadcast by IRIB that he believed “now is the best time for an agreement”.
“There is cohesion, strength and unity in the country, and as far as I know, Iran is considered victorious and powerful in this war,” he said.
Pezeshkian said Tehran and Washington should have established a mechanism to address alleged violations of their earlier memorandum instead of allowing disputes to escalate into military confrontation.
“We need to see how to resolve them now, if a solution is possible, which is currently being worked on in the Oman negotiations,” he said.
He added that he hoped Iran could move beyond the current state of “neither war nor peace”.
