TEHRAN — Iran's chief negotiator Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf told the nation Tuesday that the Strait of Hormuz will remain under Tehran's control until Washington fulfills a list of conditions set out in a June cease-fire memorandum of understanding that subsequently collapsed.
In a speech carried live on Iranian state television, Ghalibaf named three specific conditions: the removal of a U.S. naval blockade of Iran's southern ports, the lifting of oil sanctions and the unfreezing of Iranian assets held in accounts abroad. "I want to state clearly that the Strait of Hormuz will not be opened until the American commitments stipulated in the memorandum of understanding are implemented," he said.
The conflict that produced those conditions began Feb. 28, when U.S. and Israeli forces struck Iran, triggering a war that spread across the region. A diplomatic process that started April 8 stopped the most intense exchanges of fire, but sporadic clashes have continued, with the strait and its surrounding waters remaining a focal point.
Since the war's first days, Iran has maintained physical control of the Hormuz passage, through which roughly a fifth of the world's oil supply transits. Tehran has required all vessels seeking to pass to obtain prior permission and pay transit service fees. Washington and several regional governments have refused to recognize that arrangement.
Iran and Oman, both of which have coastlines on the strait, have held weeks of discussions on how commercial navigation through Hormuz should be structured going forward. Tehran said over the weekend that the geographical coordinates of a proposed shipping route had been agreed upon with Muscat. On Monday, Iranian officials said talks were continuing "in a serious manner" and said both sides were exchanging drafts of a joint statement.
Ghalibaf's remarks Tuesday appeared to draw a sharp line around those Oman-mediated talks: any bilateral arrangement on navigation would not substitute for the broader political settlement Tehran demands from Washington. The secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council—the body that coordinates the country's defense and foreign policy—has said publicly that the strait will not reopen until the United States "corrects its behaviour."
President Trump, in remarks from Washington, threatened to bomb Oman if Muscat "gets in the way" of a deal with Iran on Hormuz, a statement that complicated the mediation Oman has been conducting between the two sides. Trump has also called on Iran to surrender, framing the conflict as a political liability for Tehran. Ghalibaf rejected that framing directly, saying in the same Tuesday address that Iran was "ready to inflict an even more crushing defeat on the enemy, proportionate to its actions and advances."
The Hormuz strait, roughly 21 miles wide at its narrowest point, serves as the exit route for oil exports from Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Iraq and Iran itself. Its closure or restriction affects tanker routing, insurance rates and delivery schedules for customers across Asia and Europe. The transit-fee regime Iran has imposed since late February adds a cost layer that buyers in those markets are absorbing or contesting through alternative routing around the Arabian Peninsula.
The June memorandum of understanding that Ghalibaf referenced had been presented at the time as a framework for a lasting cease-fire. Its collapse left both sides without a binding agreement and the strait's status unresolved. Iran's position Tuesday—that the MOU's terms must be enacted before Hormuz reopens—effectively ties the commercial question back to a diplomatic process that has been stalled for weeks.
Oman has served as a back channel between Tehran and Washington on multiple occasions over the past two decades, including during nuclear negotiations. Its current role as a maritime mediator carries particular weight because Muscat has maintained working relations with both governments throughout the conflict. Whether Trump's public threat against Oman affects Muscat's willingness to continue that mediation has not been addressed by Omani officials in public statements available as of Tuesday.
No new round of direct Iran-U.S. talks has been announced. Ghalibaf's speech sets the public benchmark against which any eventual deal will be measured inside Iran: the naval blockade lifted, oil sanctions removed and foreign-held assets released before the waterway reopens to unrestricted traffic.
