Iran issues demands for reopening of Hormuz

TEHRAN: Iran's Revolutionary Guards said on Sunday they would not reopen the Strait of Hormuz, vital to the world economy, until the United States met Tehran's conditions set out the day before, including compensation for war damages. Iran has imposed an effective blockade of the strait since the United States and Israel attacked in late February, and wants to charge tolls for passage, striking ships it accuses of attempting to circumvent its preferred route. Continued attacks in the waterway, which was free to transit before the war, led to the collapse of an April ceasefire. Mediators have urged both sides to return to the terms of a subsequent June memorandum that set out a path for peace talks.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said discussions with neighbouring states over transit and management of the strait were 'approaching the final stages', but added that the reopening of Hormuz 'is subject to other conditions and compensation for the violation' of the June agreement. He denied on Sunday that Iran was negotiating with the United States, saying they were merely 'exchanging messages' via intermediaries.
Iran's security chief Mohammad Bagher Zolghadr on Saturday laid out a list of demands for reopening the strait. He also demanded the lifting of a US counterblockade of Iranian ports, the end of sanctions, the release of frozen assets and compensation for wartime damage, according to remarks reported by the Tasnim news agency. Iran's Revolutionary Guards on Sunday said their strategy was to maintain the closure 'until the enemy accepts all our conditions... the strait is now actually a theatre of war for us and not just a waterway'.
The comments came as transit through Hormuz has dropped significantly, with Iran targeting ships it accuses of skirting its preferred route through Iranian waters. The United Arab Emirates' foreign ministry on Saturday condemned what it called a 'hostile Iranian attack that targeted a tanker belonging to ADNOC (Abu Dhabi National Oil Company) with a missile while it was transiting the Strait of Hormuz, without causing casualties'.
Later on Saturday, the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) said a ship was hit by a projectile in the Strait of Hormuz, causing a fire that was extinguished but no casualties. It was unclear whether they were referring to the same ship.
The previous Iran-US deal — meant to serve as a jumping-off point for negotiations on a permanent settlement — had said Tehran and Muscat would hash out future arrangements for the strait in discussion with other Gulf countries and 'in line with the applicable international law'.
Meanwhile, Ansar Allah announced on Sunday that they had struck a Saudi oil facility on the country's Red Sea coast, after the kingdom said it had extinguished a fire at the site. Also, strikes by the group on Sunday killed at least 11 people, after an earlier drone salvo targeted a Saudi oil refinery on the Red Sea coast.
A medical source in Mokha said three civilians and eight military personnel had been killed in the Ansar Allah attacks. A further 32 individuals were wounded, six of them civilians, the source added, explaining all the civilian casualties had been a result of strikes on Mokha's port.
Two military sources with the Aden-based government confirmed the group attacked Mokha with several waves of missile and drone barrages.
One of the two military sources said Ansar Allah also targeted pro-government forces and installations outside Mokha and sites on islands near the Bab el Mandab Strait, the shipping chokepoint at the southern entrance to the Red Sea. The same military source said some locations targeted by the group housed Saudi troops but no casualties had been reported among military personnel from the kingdom. — AFP