Pakistan Defense Minister Khawaja Asif Says U.S.-Iran Deal Near Strait of Hormuz

U.S. and Iran are close to “some sort of an arrangement” over the Strait of Hormuz, Pakistan’s Defense Minister Khawaja Asif told Bloomberg in Islamabad, and he said “Things are shaping up again in favor of a peace arrangement or a deal.”

“some sort of an arrangement”

CBS News

While the diplomacy continues, CBS News reported that U.S. forces early Tuesday morning fired on a Panama-flagged vessel that tried to bypass the blockade, and it said the Wall Street Journal reported the incident.

Al Jazeera

In parallel, Yemen’s coast guard said at least six people were killed in alleged strikes by Iran-backed Houthi rebels on a cargo vessel Tuesday near the Bab al-Mandeb Strait off Yemen’s southern coast, and it identified the vessel as the Tihamah.

The coast guard said the initial salvo “caused a fire to break out aboard the vessel and inflicted extensive damage,” and it added that the strike resulted in deaths and injuries among the crew, including three Pakistani nationals and one Indonesian national killed.

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei ordered on Monday the merger of the Central Khatam al-Anbiya Headquarters and the General Staff of the Armed Forces, and the decree set the merger as a key objective “expected to be fully realized.”

President Donald Trump told reporters in the Oval Office that “The Strait of Hormuz will not reopen until the US ends the war and blockade,” and he added that “Until all conditions are met, the Strait will remain closed.”

Trump also said he has “instructed my representatives to put this firmly into any, and all, future negotiations,” after Iran’s six conditions for reopening the strait included “payment in full” for damage inflicted on Iran throughout the war.

CBS News

The Hill reported that Trump demanded compensation from Iran for “all of the people that they have killed and gravely wounded with their roadside bombs,” and it said he later amended his demand to insist Iran be responsible for “the damages and death caused to the people of Lebanon, Syria, Yemen, and Gaza!”

In response to Tehran’s stance, the CNBC report said Mohammad Bagher Zolghadr, secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, said Saturday the strait won’t reopen until Washington lifts its naval blockade and sanctions, withdraws American forces from the region, pays war reparations, and releases frozen Iranian assets.

The Hill also quoted Jason Campbell of the Middle East Institute saying the response sounded like “frustration kind of seeping out,” and it said Rosemary Kelanic of Defense Priorities called Trump’s lash out “an expression of frustration” rather than a real bargaining position.

France 24 reported that hopes for a near agreement to reopen the Strait of Hormuz are waning as Trump called on Iran to pay reparations for those killed and injured, saying Tehran is responsible in clashes, attacks, and protests.

“Trump called on Iran to pay reparations”

France 24

France 24 said Trump reiterated his call for Iran to pay compensation for people he said were killed or injured, and it noted he also pointed to compensation for the families of protesters whom Iranian authorities he said killed.

Al Jazeera described how reopening Hormuz depends on the United States accepting Iran’s conditions rather than an agreement with Oman, and it said negotiators agreed on coordinates for a route through Hormuz while Iran still seeks to control incoming traffic and impose transit fees.

The Hill framed the dispute as threatening to upend progress in Iran-Oman talks, and it said Iran’s stipulations include that the U.S. withdraw its naval blockade, pay Tehran compensation for damages from the war, unfreeze the country’s assets, lift sanctions and permanently end the conflict against the regime and its regional allies.

In the background of the standoff, CNBC reported that traffic through the strait “remains at a relative trickle,” and it said the war-induced tumult caused a global energy supply shock that sharply raised oil prices and broader economic consequences.