Iran's Supreme National Security Council says the Strait of Hormuz stays closed until the United States lifts its naval blockade, ends sanctions, and meets a list of other political demands. The hardline stance undercuts separate U.S.-Oman talks that Washington expected to restore tanker traffic soon, and it arrives alongside a fresh missile strike on a tanker and a new Saudi-Pakistan-Turkey defense pact.
Iran's Supreme National Security Council spelled out a detailed list of demands on Saturday for reopening the Strait of Hormuz, undercutting U.S. hopes that a routing deal between Tehran and Oman would quickly restore tanker traffic through the waterway. According to CNBC, council secretary Mohammad Bagher Zolghadr said the passage will stay shut until Washington changes its behavior and meets a detailed set of Iranian conditions.
Iran lists conditions for reopening
The council's demands run well beyond the technical shipping talks: lift the naval blockade, end all sanctions on Iran, withdraw U.S. forces from the region, pay war reparations, release frozen Iranian assets, halt attacks on Iran's regional allies, and stop threatening Iranian leaders. Zolghadr said the council will not retreat from those terms, whether in war or in negotiations.
Oman talks track separately from the political demands
Earlier Saturday, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Tehran and Oman were "very close" to an agreement on a temporary shipping route to replace the earlier traffic-separation scheme. According to Reuters, U.S. officials voiced similar optimism on Friday, and a U.S. official said Washington would lift its blockade of Iranian ports once a deal restoring normal commercial shipping was announced.
However, Tehran's security establishment treats the two tracks as unrelated. IRGC spokesperson Hossein Mohebbi said reopening the strait has nothing to do with the Oman talks and depends strictly on Washington accepting Iran's terms, exposing the rift between negotiators and hardliners.
Missile strike and new regional defense pact
The UAE said Saturday that Iran struck a vessel affiliated with state energy firm ADNOC with a missile during transit, though no injuries were reported. ADNOC said 15 of its vessels have been hit since hostilities began on Feb. 28, killing one person and injuring 20.
Regional powers are meanwhile moving to shore up their own defenses. Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan confirmed that the defense pact Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, and Turkey signed Friday in Mecca mirrors Article 5 of NATO's charter, treating an attack on one member as an attack on all. Fidan said the pact is purely defensive and not aimed at Iran unless a member state is attacked, adding that Egypt may join once technical issues are resolved.
In Tehran, President Masoud Pezeshkian defended his government's outreach to Washington against domestic hardline critics, highlighting internal political friction over how to manage the confrontation.
Source: Economy News
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