Iran has refuted President Donald Trump’s claim that Washington has “total control” of the Strait of Hormuz, saying the critical waterway will remain closed until the United States accepts its demands and changes its “behaviour”.
According to the semi-official Tasnim news agency, Mohsen Rezaie, the newly appointed head of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, told China’s ambassador to Tehran, Cong Peiwu: “As long as America does not change its behaviour and does not accept Iran’s conditions, the Strait of Hormuz will not be opened.”
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The Strait of Hormuz, through which one-fifth of global oil and natural gas is shipped during peacetime, has emerged as a key flashpoint in the US-Israel war on Iran, with peace talks stalled until the question of its management is resolved. Iran closed the strait shortly after US-Israeli bombing of Iran began at the end of February.
It currently says it is only talking to Oman, whose territorial waters the strait also passes through, about the future management of the waterway.
Commercial shipping remains severely disrupted in the strait, with attacks on vessels continuing on Tuesday when US forces targeted a vessel they said was headed for an Iranian port, in the Gulf of Oman.
At the same time, six people were killed in a Houthi attack on a Saudi cargo vessel in the Bab al-Mandeb Strait, according to Yemeni authorities, in what is being described as the first deaths from Houthi attacks on shipping since the US-Israel war on Iran began.
So, is the war entering another dangerous phase? And is there still a diplomatic route out?
What has Trump said about the Strait of Hormuz?
“We totally control the Strait of Hormuz. We have control over it; nobody else, only us,” Trump told reporters at Joint Base Andrews on Tuesday.
On the ground, however, the situation is more complicated. United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations said shipping remained at reduced levels and attacks and “harassment activity” persisted in the Strait of Hormuz as Iran and the US both maintain blockades in and around it.
Iran, meanwhile, has made clear that it does not intend to reopen the waterway unless Washington meets its demands for the lifting of sanctions, the release of frozen Iranian assets and compensation for attacks, among other things.
Writing on X, Rezaei also demanded an end to the US’s naval blockade on Iranian ports as well as a region-wide ceasefire, including in Gaza and Lebanon.
What has happened in Hormuz and Bab al-Mandeb?
A US Navy MH-۶۰ helicopter fired two Hellfire missiles at a Panama-flagged cargo ship in the Gulf of Oman after the vessel allegedly attempted to violate the US blockade of Iranian ports, US Central Command (CENTCOM) reported. The strike disabled the ship’s steering gear.
The M/V Vela Nova had ignored warnings before a helicopter fired missiles into its engine room, disabling it, CENTCOM said. The US military did not report any casualties among the crew.
The war has now also spilt into another key maritime passageway in the region, the Bab al-Mandeb at the entrance to the Red Sea off Yemen and Saudi Arabia’s western coast, where the Iran-backed Houthis have been targeting Saudi shipping amid renewed fighting in Yemen. Saudi Arabia has announced a new maritime alliance in a bid to secure the waterway.
On Tuesday, six people were killed in a Houthi attack on a cargo vessel in the strait, Yemeni authorities claimed.
Four crew members on board the Egyptian-owned Tihamah were killed, along with two Yemeni rescuers who were responding to the attack. Ten others were injured. The Houthis have yet to directly comment on the attack.
Later in the day, Houthi-affiliated media reported that the ship was carrying Saudi military equipment.
Hormuz and Bab al-Mandeb are both critical maritime chokepoints. Besides the one-fifth of global oil and natural gas trade through Hormuz, about ۱۱ percent of global oil and ۸ percent of liquefied natural gas (LNG) trade passes through Bab al-Mandeb.
The conflict has badly affected traffic through the waterways, sending oil prices spiralling.
The number of vessels tracked passing through the Strait of Hormuz fell to a one-week low on Tuesday.
Shipping data from Kpler, cited by the Reuters news agency, showed eight vessels transiting the strait, below the ۱۰-day average of about ۱۲ and the lowest daily tally since August ۵. Before the war, about ۱۳۰ ships passed through the strait daily.
Could open warfare begin again?
The latest attacks in Hormuz and Bab al-Mandeb strongly indicate that the conflict is not winding down.
Despite both appearing open to talks last week, the US and Iran have escalated their rhetoric in the past few days.
On Monday, US President Donald Trump said he would demand compensation from Iran for deaths and injuries linked to conflicts and attacks over several decades after Iran last week issued new demands for reparations for the US-Israel war.
However, US media have reported that the country may be running low on weapons, particularly air defence interceptors used in Patriot and Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) air defence systems, which could pose a threat to US forces and its allies in the region.
Trump and other US officials have denied this.
Meanwhile, on Tuesday, an Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) adviser said it was developing the capability to conduct operations on “enemy soil”. Until now, Iran has been limited to carrying out strikes on US military assets and energy infrastructure in neighbouring Gulf countries and Jordan.
“We need to be able to move the operations to the enemy’s soil, whenever this is needed and ordered,” he said, according to Iranian state TV.
What’s the latest on Oman-Iran talks for Hormuz?
Last week, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said negotiations with Oman for future management of the Strait of Hormuz, with new shipping lanes, have made progress and are in their “final stages”.
Iran says it is not talking directly to the US about this – only Oman, with which it proposes sharing management of the strait.
On Tuesday, Qatar’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Majed al-Ansari said he had heard positive messages from both Tehran and Muscat regarding the reopening of Hormuz.
What are the prospects for a broader US-Iran peace deal?
Pakistani Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi travelled to Tehran on Tuesday to meet Iranian officials as part of efforts to persuade Tehran to resume negotiations with Washington under the interim Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) brokered by Islamabad and Qatar in June. This is due to expire next week.
The vague wording of the MoU, under which Iran had agreed to keep Hormuz open for at least ۶۰ days, caused it to fall apart because of disagreements about who had control over the strait. Iran then fired on several ships taking a route through the channel that it had not approved.
The visit is Naqvi’s sixth trip to Iran as part of diplomatic efforts to end the US-Iran war.
On whether any future talks between the longtime foes will succeed, analyst Negar Mortazavi said the key question is whether the escalatory rhetoric from both sides is “opening negotiating positions or actual red lines”.
“If both sides are prepared to compromise, there is still a path towards ending the conflict and reopening the strait,” Mortazavi, senior fellow at the Center for International Policy, told Al Jazeera.
“If they are not, Hormuz could remain restricted and the confrontation risks becoming another prolonged, open-ended conflict in the Middle East.”
