Iran is drawing up a set of conditions that would govern the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, a senior security official said, after mediators requested that Tehran lay out its demands.
Mohsen Rezaei, secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, said in an interview on Al Manar TV that one of the items on the list is an end to the regional war. He spoke through an interpreter and said ships could transit a designated central channel through the strait if the United States met Iran's conditions.
Rezaei also said Iran had reached agreement with Oman on the broad concept of a shipping corridor through the strait. Parts of the route would lie in Omani waters and other sections in Iranian waters, he said. That arrangement, he indicated, would allow vessels to use a specific central passage provided Tehran's conditions were satisfied.
On Wednesday, a senior source indicated Tehran and Muscat were still ironing out the detailed terms of their understanding after Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said the two countries had agreed on how to allocate control of the waterway and share its revenues. The source said work was ongoing on the specifics of any agreement.
A Guards spokesperson reiterated that Iran would not permit the strait to reopen unless Washington took a number of actions. According to the spokesperson, Tehran wants what it describes as a blockade of Iranian ports lifted. The spokesperson also said Iran demands compensation and removal of sanctions as part of conditions for allowing maritime traffic to resume.
The Strait of Hormuz has been a critical route for energy shipments. Before the war began in February, the waterway carried roughly one-fifth of global oil and liquefied natural gas shipments. Since the conflict began, shipping through the strait has largely halted.
Efforts to restore maritime traffic have not yet succeeded. Ceasefire agreements announced by Washington and Tehran in April and June were intended to reopen the corridor to commercial shipping, but those measures did not hold and maritime movements have remained severely constrained.
Context important to markets and trade
The statements by Iran's security official and the Guards underscore that reopening the strait is contingent on a set of political and diplomatic conditions, and that bilateral arrangements with regional neighbors such as Oman are still being finalized.