The Strait of Hormuz, now the central flashpoint in the Middle East conflict, will remain closed unless Washington accepts all of Tehran's conditions, Iran's Revolutionary Guards insisted over the weekend, appearing to extinguish hopes of a rapid resolution.
Downplaying Iran's demands, US President Donald Trump said in an interview with Axios on Sunday that the United States remained “patient” and was merely “watching Iran with its runaway inflation” and an economy in “very poor condition”, to the point where, he claimed, it could struggle to pay its military personnel.
The United States reimposed a blockade on Iranian Gulf ports in July, a move that, according to Trump, further worsened Iran's economic crisis.
“It will work. It always works,” the Republican president said, while continuing to deliver often contradictory messages about the war. “It's like a game of chess.”
Hormuz at the heart of the conflict
At the centre of the confrontation lies the Strait of Hormuz, which Tehran has closed.
The powerful Revolutionary Guards stressed that they regard the strait as “a theatre of war and not merely a sea lane”.
“Our current strategy is to keep this strait closed until the enemy accepts all of our conditions,” they said.
Far more than Iran's nuclear programme or missile capabilities, which Washington cited among its reasons for launching the US-Israeli offensive in late February, reopening this vital corridor for global hydrocarbon trade has become Donald Trump's top priority.
In recent days, Trump had repeatedly stated that negotiations were progressing well and that the waterway would reopen soon.
However, conditions outlined by Tehran on Saturday appear to have set the stage for a new confrontation.
Iran is demanding that the United States:
- Permanently end the war and all aggression against Iran and its allies, including those in Yemen and Iraq.
- Lift the blockade on Iranian ports.
- Remove economic sanctions.
- Unfreeze Iranian assets without conditions.
Many of these provisions were already included in a memorandum of understanding signed by the presidents of the two countries in mid-June, which was supposed to pave the way for broader negotiations.
That agreement briefly allowed the strait to reopen and contributed to lower oil prices before the process later derailed.
Israel insists on the nuclear issue
As disagreements between the United States and Israel have become increasingly visible, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reiterated on Sunday that Iran's nuclear programme remains the key issue.
“With or without an agreement,” he said, the Islamic Republic “will not obtain nuclear weapons.”
'Half-negotiating'
Rejecting once again Trump's assertion that negotiations with Washington are under way, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi described the current contacts as little more than indirect exchanges.
“I would not call it a negotiation. I would call it an exchange of messages,” Araghchi said.
He ruled out any continuation of discussions while what he called American violations of the preliminary agreement, known as the Islamabad Memorandum of Understanding, continue.
Iran maintains that it is only holding talks with Oman, the sultanate located on the opposite side of the Strait of Hormuz, regarding future shipping routes through the waterway.
According to Araghchi, those discussions are now in their “final phase”.
Trump took a different view.
“We're half-negotiating with them,” he told Axios.
Tehran has ruled out any return to the pre-war status quo and intends to impose fees for services provided in Hormuz, despite explicit US opposition.
Bombing pause
US air strikes have been suspended for more than a week.
However, Trump had made clear that the pause depended on reaching an agreement to reopen the strait, and doing so quickly.
Houthis strike Saudi targets
On another front in the conflict, Yemen's Ansar Allah movement, better known as the Houthis, announced on Sunday that it had struck an ARAMCO refinery on the Red Sea coast with drones.
Saudi Arabia, which backs Yemen's internationally recognised government in its war against the rebels, said a fire at the site had been brought under control but did not specify the cause.
The Houthis also launched ballistic missiles and drones against what they described as:
“Troops of the Saudi enemy and weapons depots in the area of Mokha,”
a port city in southern Yemen.
According to a medical source, at least 11 people, including military personnel and civilians, were killed.
Regional conflict widens
After four years of relative calm, hostilities resumed in July, opening a new chapter in the regional escalation that followed the US-Israeli war against Iran launched on 28 February.
The Houthis subsequently announced a blockade of Saudi ships and ports in the Red Sea, a route whose importance to hydrocarbon trade has increased significantly since the paralysis of Hormuz.
They have also carried out repeated strikes against Saudi Arabia, the first such attacks since the UN-brokered ceasefire of 2022, which had largely held despite formally expiring.
Saudi Arabia, a US ally that repeatedly became a target of Iranian threats during the conflict, signed a mutual defence agreement with Pakistan and Turkey on Friday.
Source: CNA
