Iran Sets Conditions for Reopening the Strait of Hormuz, Demands U.S. Concessions

Iran said it laid down conditions for reopening the Strait of Hormuz, including compensation for damage suffered during the war, while Tehran has effectively restricted passage through the strait since the United States and Israel launched strikes against Iran in late February.

“subject to other conditions and compensation for the violation”

Blueprint Newspapers

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said negotiations with Oman concerning transit and the management of the Strait of Hormuz were nearing their final stages, but that an agreement would depend on other conditions including compensation, adding that the reopening was “subject to other conditions and compensation for the violation” of the June agreement.

Al Jazeera

Iran’s security chief Mohammad Bagher Zolghadr outlined demands Tehran wants addressed before the strait is reopened, including an end to what it described as military aggression against Iran and its allies in Lebanon, Palestine, Yemen and Iraq, and called for the removal of a parallel US naval blockade, the lifting of sanctions, the release of frozen Iranian assets and compensation for wartime damage.

The restrictions have significantly affected maritime traffic through the route, which is critical to the global oil trade, and Iran has sought to impose charges on vessels using the waterway while targeting ships it accuses of trying to avoid its preferred route through Iranian waters.

The United Arab Emirates Foreign Ministry condemned what it described as a “hostile Iranian attack” on an oil tanker operated by Abu Dhabi National Oil Company, saying the tanker was struck by a missile while transiting the Strait of Hormuz, with no casualties reported.

The United States acknowledged a difficult economy for Tehran and sources say options to de-escalate the conflict have narrowed, as The Wall Street Journal reported that U.S. President Donald Trump’s options to withdraw from the war against Iran “narrowed.”

Trump told Axios that “we are thinking little about it” and argued that Iran’s situation is in a “very bad” economic state, while Iran’s Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi said on Saturday that Iran and Oman are “very close” to an agreement to define new shipping routes through the Strait of Hormuz.

BBC

Iran said it is close to striking a final deal with Oman to define new shipping routes, but reiterated that the United States must meet other conditions, including compensation, an end to sanctions and military threats, before reopening the strategic waterway.

Iran’s Supreme National Security Council Secretary Ali Shamkhani said other demands include ending further American threats against Iran, halting attacks on Iran and its allies in Lebanon, the Palestinian territories, Yemen, and Iraq, lifting the U.S. naval blockade in the Gulf, and lifting sanctions on Tehran and releasing frozen Iranian assets.

Reuters reported that an American official told Reuters, on condition of anonymity, that “as soon as the agreement to resume unimpeded commercial shipping is announced, the United States will lift the blockade on Iranian ports.”

Iran’s stance has kept the Strait of Hormuz effectively closed, and the conflict has intensified fears over the potential disruption of energy supplies and the wider impact on international trade if maritime traffic through the strait remains restricted.

“about 20% of the world’s oil and LNG shipments passed through the strait”

SWI swissinfo.ch

Before the conflict, about 20% of the world’s oil and LNG shipments passed through the strait, and Iran effectively closed the strait since the start of the American-Israeli war against it on February 28, helping push up oil prices and inflation.

Oil prices edged up to $84.22 per barrel as optimism about a potential agreement to open the strait waned due to Iran’s insistence that the United States meet its demands, while Brent crude settled in late April at around $126 per barrel, the highest since 2022, amid ongoing shipping disruptions.

The BBC reported that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stressed the need to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon, while the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps confirmed on Sunday that Tehran will not reopen the strategic Hormuz Strait unless the United States accepts all its terms.

In the same reporting, IRGC spokesman Hossein Moghabi said, “Our current strategy is to control this strait until the enemy accepts all our conditions,” and the statements followed the determination by the secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, Ali Bagheri Kani, of preconditions that the United States must meet before reopening the strait.