Since the end of February, when the US and Israel carried out attacks, Iran has effectively blocked the strait and seeks to collect tolls for passage, attacking ships it accuses of trying to avoid the preferred route.
Continuous attacks on the waterway, which was free before the war, led to the collapse of the ceasefire reached in April. Mediators are urging both sides to return to the terms of the June agreement, which provided a path for peace talks.
Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said that talks with Oman on transit and strait management are “approaching the final stage,” but added that the opening of Hormuz “depends on other conditions and compensation for the violation of the June agreement.”
On Sunday, he denied that Iran is negotiating with the US, stating that the countries are only exchanging messages through intermediaries.
Iran’s security chief Mohammad Bagher Zolghadras on Saturday presented a list of demands to open the strait, including the “cessation of war and aggression against Iran and its allies in Lebanon, Palestine, Yemen, and Iraq.”
According to the news agency Tasnim, he also demanded an end to the US counter-blockade of Iranian ports, lifting of sanctions, freezing of assets, and payment of compensation for war damages.
The Iranian Revolutionary Guard on Sunday stated that their strategy is to maintain the blockade “until the enemy agrees to all our conditions (…) the strait is now truly a battlefield for us, not just a waterway.”
Repeated attacks
These comments came as transit through Hormuz sharply decreased, with Iran targeting ships allegedly trying to bypass the preferred route through Iranian waters.
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The United Arab Emirates (UAE) Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Saturday condemned “a hostile Iranian missile attack on an ADNOC (Abu Dhabi National Oil Company) tanker passing through the Strait of Hormuz, in which no one was harmed.”
Later on Saturday, the United Kingdom’s (UK) Maritime Trade Operations Service (UKMTO) reported that a projectile hit a ship off the coast of Oman in the Strait of Hormuz, causing a fire that was extinguished, with no casualties. It is unclear if this refers to the same ship.
Oman’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Saturday condemned “repeated attacks on ships passing through the Strait of Hormuz,” without directly naming Iran.
The ministry also stated that “ongoing negotiations on navigation conditions in the Strait of Hormuz are proceeding positively and constructively,” and urged avoiding any actions that could harm progress.
A previous Iran-US agreement, intended to serve as a basis for talks on a permanent settlement, stipulated that Tehran and Muscat, along with other Gulf countries, would discuss the future management of the strait “in accordance with applicable international law.”
International law generally prohibits collecting tolls in such waterways.
Meanwhile, Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen on Sunday reported attacking a Saudi oil facility on the Red Sea coast, after the kingdom announced it had extinguished a fire at the facility, as Iran’s allies seek to cut off a second vital waterway.
