Iran sets conditions for reopening Hormuz

TEHRAN, Aug 28: Iran is preparing a list of conditions for reopening the Strait of Hormuz after mediators asked Tehran to set them out, said Mohsen Rezaei, secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, adding that ending the regional war was among them.

Rezaeisaid Iran had agreed with Oman on a shipping corridor through the strait, with parts of the route in Omani waters and parts in Iranian waters. Ships would use a designated central channel if the US met Iran's conditions, he said through an interpreter in an Al Manar TV interview.

On Wednesday, a senior source said Iran and Oman were still working on details of an agreement on the waterway after Iran's Revolutionary Guards said the two countries had agreed on how to share control of the strait and its revenues.

A Guards spokesperson said Iran would not allow the strait to reopen unless Washington lifted what Tehran describes as a blockade of Iranian ports while also paying compensation and removing sanctions.

Before the war began in February, the strait carried roughly one-fifth of global oil and liquefied natural gas shipments. Shipping through the waterway has largely stopped since then. Ceasefire agreements announced by Washington and Tehran in April and June were intended to restore maritime traffic, but did not hold.

Iran condemned the United States' new economic sanctions on Friday as "state terrorism" and said other countries were legally obliged not to implement them.

The Iranian foreign ministry's statement came as mediators stepped up efforts to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, which handled 20% of world oil supplies before the war began six months ago and whose status remains the biggest obstacle to a peace deal.

President Donald Trump's administration on Monday warned countries to cut their business ties with Iran or face secondary sanctions as part of what it billed as an "economic D-Day," though the Treasury Department stopped short of actually imposing penalties.

Trump reiterated on Thursday that the US was not talking with Iran, while the White House said Washington's economic campaign would continue until Tehran decided to "come to the table in a meaningful way".

Iran’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Friday that all countries were obligated under international law to refrain from implementing US sanctions against Tehran, adding that participation in them amounted to complicity in imposing one state’s unlawful will on independent ⁠states.

It branded the new US measures a "crime against humanity" that put the health and livelihood of millions of civilians at serious risk, and called on other nations and United Nations bodies to uphold the rule of law.

With the US focused on its economic pressure campaign, others have sought to revive diplomatic efforts to end the war.

Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thanisaid he had stressed during talks with Iranian leaders in Tehran on Thursday the importance of returning to the pre-war status of open shipping through the Strait of Hormuz.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi on Friday described the talks with Al Thani as "creative", and he renewed his appeal to the US to stop putting military and economic pressure on his country and to resume negotiations.

"Putting diplomacy back on track isn't impossible. It hinges on US understanding of one simple fact: pressure doesn't work," Araqchi said on X.

Qatar, a US ally, and Pakistan helped broker a memorandum of understanding in June that led to a ceasefire but that quickly unravelled due to disagreements between Iran and the US over the Strait of Hormuz.

After the US and Israel launched the war six months ago, Iran threatened to strike any vessel transiting the strait without its authorisation, driving down traffic and sending up the price of oil, providing Tehran with leverage in the bargain.

The US insists that the strait remain an open international waterway.

Mohsen Rezaei, secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, said on Thursday Iran was preparing a list of conditions for reopening the strait.

Speaking through an interpreter in an Al Manar TV interview, Rezaei said Iran had agreed with Oman on a shipping corridor through the strait, with parts of the route in Omani waters and parts in Iranian waters. Ships would use a designated central channel if the US met Iran's conditions, he said.

In the past Iran's conditions have included an end to the US blockade on Iranian ports, compensation and removal of sanctions. It remained unclear whether Iran intended to amend those demands in a way that might be acceptable to Washington.

US military commanders say American forces have cleared sea mines from the strait that had been laid months ago by Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.�" REUTERS