Iran said Tuesday that the Strait of Hormuz will remain closed unless the United States ends the war and meets Tehran’s conditions, raising the bar for a deal that would restore more oil traffic through the key waterway.
Mohsen Rezaei, secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, said Washington must end the conflict and unfreeze Iranian funds held overseas before Tehran will agree to reopen the strait.
Iran has also delivered additional conditions to the United States through mediators, Rezaei said in comments carried by the semi-official Tasnim news agency. He did not publicly identify those demands.
The comments complicate expectations that a shipping agreement could be reached quickly. U.S. officials had suggested last week that negotiations involving Iran and Oman were making progress toward allowing more vessels through Hormuz.
Brent crude moved higher Tuesday, with the October contract trading at $88.70 per barrel shortly after 1 p.m. ET, up $0.98, or 1.12%.
The market has spent weeks reacting to every suggestion that Persian Gulf shipping could normalize, even as actual tanker traffic has remained constrained and commercial vessels have continued to face security risks.
Iran has previously discussed conditions that would give it greater control over inbound traffic through Hormuz and visibility over outbound vessels. Tehran has also insisted that any agreement recognize its security interests in the waterway.
The latest demands make clear that Iran is tying the shipping issue directly to the broader war rather than treating Hormuz as a separate maritime problem.
Rezaei’s comments leave the next move with Washington. Ending the war and releasing frozen Iranian funds are substantially bigger concessions than simply agreeing on shipping rules, and Tehran says Hormuz stays closed until those demands are addressed.
By Julianne Geiger for Oilprice.com
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