Iran and Oman are discussing a temporary transit corridor and mine-clearing effort for the Strait of Hormuz, but Tehran yesterday said the vital waterway would not be reopened unless the US ends the war.
Washington has announced fresh sanctions aimed at pressuring Iran into submission, with US Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent threatening the Islamic republic with “economic asphyxiation.”
During talks in Tehran, foreign ministers from Iran and Oman discussed a “phased framework” that included setting up a “joint temporary navigational corridor through the Strait of Hormuz and an agreement to implement a joint project to clear the Strait of mines,” according to a statement.
Photo: Majid Asgaripour, West Asia News Agency via Reuters
The two countries, both coastal states bordering the strait, have sought to hammer out a plan to regulate transit through it, as laid out in a June US-Iran memorandum of understanding.
Iranian Minister of Foreign Affairs Abbas Araghchi on Tuesday said that the proposed framework is “case in point” showing how his country’s “commitment to peace and stability is matched by steadfast diplomacy with our neighbors.”
Nearly six months after the US and Israel went to war against Iran, traffic through the Hormuz Strait remains largely paralyzed, disrupting global oil markets.
Tehran has blockaded the crucial waterway — which normally carries about one-fifth of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas exports — while Washington imposed a naval counter-blockade on Iranian ports.
Iranian Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Kazem Gharibabadi yesterday said that no military vessel would be allowed to pass through the Hormuz Strait.
“We closed the Strait of Hormuz before the United States imposed an economic blockade because the United States failed to fulfil its commitments under the memorandum of understanding,” the state-run Islamic Republic News Agency quoted Gharibabadi as saying.
No military vessels from any country would be allowed through the strait, while Iranian authorities would monitor commercial vessels seeking to cross it, Gharibabadi said.
“Before any action is taken to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, the United States must fully implement all of the commitments it has violated,” he said, calling on the US to end the war, lift its blockade and resolve the situation in Yemen.
US President Donald Trump previously said on Truth Social that “all mines have been removed and/or detonated from within the International Waters of the Strait of Hormuz,” citing the US Navy.
However, Gharibabadi said such claims were “propaganda deception,” adding that Iran would target US minesweepers that entered the area.
Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu late on Tuesday said a diplomatic deal was not possible with the “savages” who rule Iran as he hailed Trump’s new campaign of economic pressure.
Recounting a meeting with Trump, Netanyahu said they had discussed the possibility of diplomacy with the Islamic republic.
“I doubt, however, that an agreement can be reached with that group there, with those savages,” Netanyahu told an event at an Israeli settlement in the occupied West Bank.
Trump on Monday declared “economic D-Day” aimed at destroying Iran’s economy, which has already endured years of sanctions, but he has shown reluctance to resume a full-scale war even as he grows frustrated that Tehran would not accept his demands.
Netanyahu voiced support for Trump’s economic pressure campaign and said he had told Trump of this “third option,” while praising the US president for pursuing it in “a very, very, very strong way.”
Trump had chosen to target not just Iran itself, but decided on “tightening the siege on those who assist this regime, this terrible dictatorship. This is very important,” Netanyahu said.
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