Iranupdated 27m ago3 min read
Archive photo · 13 December 2025Ghalibaf Says Strait of Hormuz Will “Never Return” to Pre-War Status
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Strait of Hormuz will never return to pre-war status, says Ghalibaf. Iran and Oman reached agreement to oversee the strait within a seven-point framework.
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Hormuz after war
Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf told Al Jazeera that the Strait of Hormuz will “never return” to its status prior to the US-Israel war on Iran, and he said Iran and Oman reached an understanding to oversee the waterway as part of Tehran’s seven-point proposal to end the eight-month conflict. Ghalibaf argued that “There are no ‘free waters’ [international waters] there, and the 1982 [UN Convention on the Law of the Sea] does not apply to the strait,” adding that the regulations are governed by the laws of the two littoral states that border it. Ghalibaf said Iran provided a clear response to the US through a Qatari mediator that included its seven conditions for peace talks, and he said “The ball is now in the American court.”
Ghalibaf listed conditions that include lifting the US-imposed naval blockade and sanctions, the release of Iranian frozen funds, ending fighting on all fronts, and an explicit announcement of an end to the war, while he said those demands were part of the Islamabad memorandum of understanding signed in June. Ghalibaf warned against new US attacks against Iran, saying that US President Donald Trump will face another defeat and political pressure from the new Congress that takes office in January.
Shipping costs and traffic
India Shipping News said the escalating geopolitical crisis in West Asia disrupted India’s crude oil shipping economics, with tanker freight rates on some Gulf-to-India routes climbing nearly fivefold compared with February levels. Drewry Maritime Research data in India Shipping News put freight rates for crude shipments from Fujairah in the UAE to India’s west coast at approximately US$7.51 per barrel in October, compared with US$1.57 per barrel in late February, a rise of nearly 377%. IOL said restrictions on shipping through the Strait of Hormuz emerged as one of the biggest threats to international trade and economic stability, and it said commercial shipping traffic fell from pre-war levels of approximately 85 vessels a day to an average of seven.
IOL also said the Strait of Hormuz is a vital passage for international oil and gas supplies, and it described Iran as using its strategic geographic control to restrict shipping through the waterway despite Donald Trump’s insistence that it remains open. India Shipping News added that the disruption is partly attributed to greater reliance on ship-to-ship (STS) transfers in the Gulf of Oman as shipping companies and oil suppliers seek alternative arrangements to move crude while navigating disrupted maritime corridors.
Diplomacy and regional ripple
IOL quoted Iran’s ambassador to South Africa, Mansour Shakib Mehr, saying, “Trump dragged the world into an economic crisis through his illegal war against Iran in collaboration with Israel,” and it said Mehr linked that to Republican electoral losses and intensified pressure on Trump over the war and its economic consequences. Mehr insisted that the United States must abandon what he described as its policy of “bullying and intimidation” and honour the conditions outlined in the Islamabad Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), while he said, “We will not accept any temporary solutions.” MEED said the disruption to shipping through the Strait of Hormuz and the Bab Al-Mandab Strait sparked a regional pipeline project boom, and it said countries seek to diversify export routes for oil and gas.
MEED reported that Iraq had increased volumes exported via the Iraq-Turkiye Pipeline (ITP) and boosted crude exports by truck through Syria, and it said domestic news outlets reported Iraq’s State Oil Marketing Organisation is exporting 500,000 b/d through the ITP. MEED also said Saudi Arabia granted preliminary approval to revive a joint oil export pipeline project between the Zubair oil field in Basra and the Red Sea port of Yanbu, and it described the pipeline as 1,568-kilometre (km) and halted in August 1990 following Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait and the onset of the Gulf War.