Iran has set conditions for reopening the Strait of Hormuz, including compensation for war-related damage, potentially complicating efforts to reopen the crucial waterway.
Tehran has effectively blockaded the strait since the United States and Israel launched strikes on Iran in late February. It has also sought to impose tolls on vessels using the waterway and attacked ships it accused of attempting to bypass its preferred route.
Continued attacks in the strait, which was open to free transit before the war, led to the collapse of an April ceasefire. Mediators have since urged both sides to return to the terms of a June memorandum.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said discussions with Oman on the transit and management of the strait were “approaching the final stages”.
However, he said reopening the waterway “is subject to other conditions and compensation for the violation” of the June agreement.
Iran’s security chief, Mohammad Bagher Zolghadr, on Saturday outlined several conditions for reopening the strait, including an end to what he described as the “war and aggression against Iran and its allies in Lebanon, Palestine, Yemen, and Iraq”.
He also demanded an end to a parallel US naval blockade of Iran, the lifting of sanctions, the release of frozen Iranian assets and compensation for wartime damage, according to remarks reported by the Tasnim news agency.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, meanwhile, said the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz had “nothing to do with the negotiations between Iran and Oman”, adding that the “enemy is forced to accept Iran’s conditions for the opening of the strait”.
Repeated attacks
The comments came as shipping traffic through the Strait of Hormuz has fallen sharply, with Iran targeting vessels it accuses of attempting to circumvent its preferred route through Iranian waters.
The United Arab Emirates’ Foreign Ministry on Saturday condemned what it described as a “hostile Iranian attack” on an ADNOC tanker, saying the vessel was struck by a missile while transiting the Strait of Hormuz. No casualties were reported.
Later on Saturday, the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) said a vessel was hit by a projectile off Oman in the Strait of Hormuz, sparking a fire that was subsequently extinguished. No casualties were reported.
It was not immediately clear whether the incident involved the same vessel referred to by the UAE.
On Friday, ADNOC said that 15 of its vessels had been attacked in the Strait of Hormuz since the start of the war, “including three vessels this week alone”.
Oman’s Foreign Ministry on Saturday condemned “repeated attacks on vessels transiting the Strait of Hormuz”, without directly naming Iran.
The ministry also said negotiations on navigation arrangements in the strait were continuing in a “positive and constructive atmosphere” and urged all sides to avoid actions that could jeopardise the progress.
The previous Iran-US deal, intended to provide a basis for negotiations on a permanent settlement, stipulated that Iran and Oman would discuss future arrangements for the strait with other Gulf countries and “in line with the applicable international law”.
International law generally does not permit the imposition of tolls on vessels transiting such international waterways.
Security agreement
Separately, Turkey’s Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said on Saturday that he expected Egypt to join a joint defence agreement between Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan aimed at strengthening regional security.
Fidan described Egypt as a “natural partner on all issues”.
“I believe that at the next stage Egypt will also be among us in the alliance. We already act toward one another as if we were alliance members,” he said in an interview.
His comments came after a drone struck US assets at an Egyptian Mediterranean port last month, marking the first reported drone attack on Egyptian territory since the outbreak of the Iran war.
Fidan said the defence agreement was not directed against any specific country.
“There is no common threat that we have put in writing,” he said, according to the news agency.
Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry said on Friday that the agreement provided that an attack on one member would be regarded as an attack on all.
The ministry said the pact was “intended to strengthen collective deterrence”.
AFP
