U.S Must End Sanctions, Military Threats Before Hormuz Will Reopen-Iran

The Iranian government has said the United States must end sanctions, military threat and meet the compensation it demanded and other conditions before the Strait of Hormuz will be reopened

Iran said this on Monday as it prepares for a final pact with Oman defining new shipping lanes between them through the strategic waterway through which about a fifth of global oil and liquefied natural gas flowed prior to the conflict.

Oil prices edged higher on ⁠Monday to $84.22 a barrel, as optimism over a deal to open the strait was tempered by Iran’s insistence the U.S. must satisfy its demands.

At the end of April, the global Brent oil benchmark hit about $126 a barrel, the highest since 2022, amid ongoing disruption to shipping.

The Strait has been effectively blocked since the U.S.-Israel attacks on Iran on February 28, pushing up oil prices and inflation.

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei said on Monday that talks with Oman on arrangements for navigation through the strait were “progressing smoothly and constructively,” with an agreement reached on a shipping route map, while some technical issues on a joint ​statement remained unresolved.

He said during a weekly press conference in Tehran that the discussions also covered mechanisms for safe navigation, environmental protection, maritime services and combating crime, adding that such ​services would normally entail receiving payment in return.

On Sunday, Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said an agreement with Oman was in its “final stages” ⁠but stressed that Tehran would not reopen the channel unless the U.S. met certain demands made by Tehran.

Iran and the U.S. are not engaged in direct talks, and Tehran will not start them as ​long as Washington breaches an interim deal signed in June, Araqchi said, adding that messages were being exchanged through intermediaries.

U.S. President Donald Trump said in an interview with Axios that the U.S. was “low-keying” it ​with Iran. “We are only semi-negotiating with them. We are just watching Iran with its huge inflation and the fact they have no money.”

Araqchi said reopening the strait would depend in part on the U.S. paying compensation for damage it caused in widespread attacks on Iran.

The outgoing secretary of Iran’s top national security body, Mohammad Baqer Zolqadr, also listed ending further U.S. threats against Iran; halting aggression toward Iran and its Lebanese, Palestinian, Yemeni and Iraqi allies; removing a U.S. naval ​blockade in the Gulf; lifting sanctions on Iran; and releasing frozen Iranian assets.

Iran on Sunday announced that former Revolutionary Guards commander Mohsen Rezaei, seen as a more outspoken figure than Zolqadr, would take over ​as second-in-command of the body that coordinates the country’s security and foreign policy.

No reason was given for the change and it was not immediately clear if it would herald any change in policy.

Trump, who has said the attacks on Iran were aimed at keeping the Islamic Republic from developing nuclear weapons and degrading its ability to threaten the region, is under pressure to end a war that is deeply unpopular at home ahead of midterm elections in November.

Washington and Tehran agreed to a ceasefire in June, but the U.S. reimposed a blockade on Iranian shipping in the Gulf in July, a move that Tehran said violated the ⁠truce, which by then had already broken down.

“Once the deal is announced to restore commercial shipping without impediments, the United States will lift the blockade of Iranian ports,” a U.S. official told Reuters on Friday on condition of anonymity. U.S. actions would be tied to Iran’s implementation of its commitments,” the official said.