Iran has vehemently refuted President Donald Trump’s assertion that Washington holds ‘total control’ of the Strait of Hormuz, asserting that the waterway will remain closed until the United States accepts its demands and alters its ‘behaviour’. According to the semi-official Tasnim news agency, Mohsen Rezaie, newly appointed head of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, told China’s ambassador to Tehran, Cong Peiwu, ‘As long as America does not change its behaviour and does not accept Iran’s conditions, the Strait of Hormuz will not be opened.’
This claim follows a recent period of heightened tension between Iran and the United States, largely driven by concerns over Iran’s ballistic missile tests in the Persian Gulf. It is crucial to understand that the Strait of Hormuz, which constitutes approximately one-fifth of global oil and natural gas trade during peacetime, has emerged as a focal point of US-Israel conflict, with peace talks stalled until the question of its management is resolved. Iran has previously stated that it is only engaged in discussions with Oman, whose territorial waters the strait also passes through, about the future management of the waterway.
Commercial shipping remains severely disrupted in the strait, with attacks on vessels continuing on Tuesday when US forces targeted a vessel they said was headed for an Iranian port, in the Gulf of Oman. Simultaneously, six people were killed in a Houthi attack on a cargo vessel in the Bab al-Mandeb Strait, according to Yemeni authorities, in what is being described as the first deaths from Houthi attacks on shipping since the US-Israel war began. This incident is being viewed as a significant escalation.
At the same time, six people were killed in a Houthi attack on a cargo vessel in the strait, Yemeni authorities claimed. The war has now also spilled into another key maritime passageway in the region, the Bab al-Mandeb at the entrance to the Red Sea off Yemen and Saudi Arabia’s western coast, where the Iran-backed Houthis have been targeting Saudi shipping amid renewed fighting in Yemen. Saudi Arabia has announced a new maritime alliance in a bid to secure the waterway.
Iran, meanwhile, has made clear that it does not intend to reopen the waterway unless Washington meets its demands for the lifting of sanctions, the release of frozen Iranian assets, and compensation for attacks. Furthermore, Iran has demanded an end to the US’s naval blockade on Iranian ports, as well as a regional ceasefire, including in Gaza and Lebanon. The US Navy MH-60 helicopter fired two Hellfire missiles at a Panama-flagged cargo ship in the Gulf of Oman after the vessel allegedly attempted to violate the US blockade of Iranian ports, CentCOM reported. The M/V Vela Nova had ignored warnings before a helicopter fired missiles into its engine room, disabling it, CentCOM said. The US military did not report any casualties among the crew.
The war has now also spilled into another key maritime passageway in the region, the Bab al-Mandeb at the entrance to the Red Sea off Yemen and Saudi Arabia’s western coast, where the Iran-backed Houthis have been targeting Saudi shipping amid renewed fighting in Yemen. Saudi Arabia has announced a new maritime alliance in a bid to secure the waterway. On Tuesday, an Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) adviser stated that it was developing the capability to conduct operations on ‘enemy soil’. Until now, Iran has been limited to strikes on US military assets and energy infrastructure in neighboring Gulf countries and Jordan. Trump and other US officials have denied this, but last week, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said negotiations with Oman for future management of the Strait of Hormuz, with new shipping lanes, have made progress and are in their ‘final stages’. The MoU, under which Iran had agreed to keep Hormuz open for at least 60 days, fell apart because of disagreements over who had control over the strait.
Hormuz and Bab al-Mandeb are both critical maritime chokepoints. Besides the one-fifth of global oil and natural gas trade through Hormuz, about 11 percent of global oil and 8 percent of liquefied natural gas (LNG) trade passes through Bab al-Mandeb. The conflict has badly affected traffic through the waterways, sending oil prices spiralling. The number of vessels tracked passing through the Strait of Hormuz fell to a one-week low on Tuesday. Shipping data from Kpler, cited by Reuters, showed eight vessels transiting the strait, below the 10-day average of about 12 and the lowest daily tally since August 5. Iran says it is not talking directly to the US about this – only Oman, with which it proposes sharing management of the strait. On Tuesday, an Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) adviser said it was developing the capability to conduct operations on ‘enemy soil’. Last week, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said negotiations with Oman regarding the reopening of Hormuz under the interim Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) were progressing and are in their ‘final stages’. The visit is Naqvi’s sixth trip to Iran as part of diplomatic efforts to end the war. On whether any future talks between the long-time foes will succeed, analyst Negar Mortazavi said the key question is whether the escalatory rhetoric from both sides is ‘opening negotiating positions or actual red lines’. ‘If both sides are prepared to compromise, there is still a path towards ending the conflict and reopening the strait,’ Mortazavi, senior fellow at the Center for International Policy, told Al Jazeera. ‘If they are not, Hormuz could remain restricted and the confrontation risks becoming another prolonged, open-ended conflict in the Middle East.’
Source: Al Jazeera
