A senior Iranian government official declared Saturday that the Strait of Hormuz would not open until the Trump administration meets a wide-ranging set of demands.
Iranian security official Mohammad Bagher Zolghadr wrote in a statement that the United States must lift its naval blockade of the crucial waterway on the Persian Gulf, end sanctions against the country, release frozen Iranian assets, end the war in Iran and pay restitution for its damages.
The statement, which was circulated by Iranian state media, said the strait would not open “until America corrects its behavior.”
Iran’s demands jeopardize a deal to reopen the strait that several White House officials were optimistic would be reached earlier this week.
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The United States resumed a naval blockade of the strait on July 14, escalating retaliatory attacks on Iran as a memorandum of understanding between the two countries seemingly collapsed. Negotiations bittered — as the U.S. military’s stockpile of missiles has reportedly dwindled — in the weeks since.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told CNBC Aug. 4 the agreement would provide “freedom of movement” for commercial ships when asked whether Iran would be allowed to charge a toll.
Bessent predicted oil prices will drop once vessels return to their shipping routes, bringing “relief” to the economy as prices go down, adding: “It’s not just energy. It’s fertilizer, it’s refined products, it is the various industrial gasses.”
The Iranian government has said it is in discussions only with Oman, not the U.S., which drew President Donald Trump’s ire earlier this month. He called Iranian leadership “duplicitous.”
“Nothing gets through to Iran, unless we want it to, and nothing will get through, unless a Deal, or Total Surrender, is accomplished,” Trump wrote on Truth Social this week. “Whether Iran wants to admit it or not, we are, in fact, talking of a solution to a problem that they have caused, for decades.”
The president called off threats to heavily bomb Iran in early August so negotiations could continue.
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