IRGC says strait won’t reopen until US resumes June deal
Under the June memorandum’s terms, Iran would reopen the Strait of Hormuz and begin nuclear-program negotiations in exchange for U.S. sanctions relief and access to Iranian funds frozen abroad. Vice President Vance helped negotiate the deal alongside Trump, who signed the document at the Palace of Versailles.
The agreement collapsed within weeks. Iran began attacking commercial vessels in the strait, and the United States responded with a naval blockade. Trump has since pivoted to a policy of squeezing Iran economically and is willing to wait to see whether the approach bears fruit, according to people familiar with the matter. They said the president is no longer interested in the memorandum of understanding, which was heavily criticized in the U.S. as soft on Iran.
Iranian hardliners are pressing Washington to honor the original deal. “Washington ‘should know that no proposal outside the framework of understanding will be accepted,’” senior lawmaker Mohammad Rashidi told parliamentary news agency Icana. The Revolutionary Guard was more direct on Wednesday, with spokesman Brig. Gen. Hossein Mohebbi telling state television that “if the United States stops obstructing and returns to the memorandum of understanding, we can open the Strait of Hormuz within the framework of the agreement reached.” Mohebbi added that “our conditions must be accepted by the United States.”
Conservatives in Iran have interpreted Paragraph 5 of the June deal, in particular, as acknowledging Tehran’s authority to set the terms for reopening the waterway. That reading has hardened Iran’s negotiating posture even as mediators warn that the U.S. side is moving away from the original terms.
Mediators have spent the week pressing both sides to find common ground. Pakistan’s army chief and top negotiator, Asim Munir, traveled to Tehran early this week but left with little progress, some of the people said. Oman’s foreign minister followed, attempting to broker an agreement with Iran on the shipping lanes vessels would use to transit the strait. Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani, Doha’s chief negotiator with Iran, separately met Iran’s foreign minister in Tehran in a bid to restart talks. A joint statement afterward said they discussed how to head off escalation and lay the groundwork for negotiations.
The Omani effort focused on a narrower deal meant to clear the way for broader talks to reopen the waterway. That effort has stalled for weeks, as Iran sought changes that would give it more control over traffic, and the Trump administration lashed out at Oman for giving too much away, some of the people said. Iran claimed the meeting produced an agreement on the route through the strait, which Iran borders on the north and Oman on the south. Oman has not confirmed a deal, and Iranian officials have offered contradictory accounts of what it entails.
The diplomatic maneuvering comes against a backdrop of continued attacks on commercial shipping. Maritime security firm Ambrey said a Kuwaiti crude oil tanker was struck late Tuesday off the coast of Oman, causing a fire on board.
Mediators said both sides have hardened their positions. “The old MOU is essentially dead in all aspects,” said Umer Karim, a researcher at the University of Birmingham. “The task of the mediators to have the two sides reach some sort of a compromise have become even more difficult in the current circumstances.” H.A. Hellyer, a senior fellow at the Royal United Services Institute for Defense and Security Studies in London, said Trump “wants a win somehow, which complicates matters tremendously.”
White House spokesperson Anna Kelly said the administration is focused on tightening economic pressure. “As the president said, there are no talks or conversations going on, or scheduled, with the Islamic Republic of Iran,” she said. “The naval blockade remains in full force and effect, and Operation Economic Outcast is underway to sever every remaining economic lifeline sustaining the regime.”
Behnam Ben Taleblu, a senior director at the Iran program at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, said the impasse does not rule out a deal. “Both sides are preparing for an escalation, the U.S. with economic warfare and Iran with military threats,” he said. “But it does not mean they are not looking for diplomatic success.”
Arab officials, whose tourism and investment income have been hurt by the conflict, are hoping to restart the diplomatic track amid concerns that Iran could respond to U.S. economic pressure by lashing out militarily.