‘No military solution’ to reopening Hormuz: Iran

TEHRAN, Aug 10: Ali Nikzad, Iran’s deputy speaker of the Islamic Consultative Assembly, has said the Strait of Hormuz is not going to return to its pre-war condition, according to a report by the country’s Mehr news agency.

Addressing the assembly on the current conditions in the region, he said: “The Islamic Republic of Iran tried to inform the aggressor and deluded enemy of the fact that the Strait of Hormuz is not going to return to the pre-war conditions during the days of the war.”

“Unfortunately, they tried to pretend not to know, but the passage of time is the greatest teacher for deluded people, and today the American-Zionist enemy, with a strong fist of armed forces, has practically realised that the opening of the Strait of Hormuz has no military solution and must submit to the new order in the region,” Nikzad said.

He added that Iran’s most important priority currently, however, is to reduce the country’s economic challenges.

Reuters add, Iran said it was nearing a final pact with Oman defining new shipping lanes between them through the Strait of Hormuz but repeated that the US must meet other conditions, including compensation and an end to sanctions and military threats, before the strategic waterway is reopened.

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei said on Monday that talks with Oman on arrangements for navigation through the strait were "progressing smoothly and constructively", with an agreement reached on a shipping route map, while some technical issues on a joint statement remained unresolved.

He said during a weekly press conference in Tehran that the discussions also covered mechanisms for safe navigation, environmental protection, maritime services and combating crime, adding that such services would normally entail receiving payment in return.

US President Donald Trump said in an interview with Axios that the US was "low-keying" it with Iran. "We are only semi-negotiating with them. We are just watching Iran with its huge inflation and the fact they have no money."

Araqchi said reopening the strait would depend in part on the US paying compensation for damage it caused in widespread attacks on Iran.

The outgoing secretary of Iran's top national security body, Mohammad BaqerZolqadr, also listed ending further US threats against Iran; halting aggression toward Iran and its Lebanese, Palestinian, Yemeni and Iraqi allies; removing a US naval blockade in the Gulf; lifting sanctions on Iran; and releasing frozen Iranian assets.

Oil prices edged higher on Monday to $84.22 a barrel, as optimism over a deal to open the strait was tempered by Iran's insistence the US must satisfy its demands.�" AGENCIES