The Albany Gazette - Iran Guards say won't reopen Hormuz without US meeting all Tehran's conditions

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 Oman 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, including an end to the "war and aggression against Iran and its allies in Lebanon, Palestine, Yemen and Iraq".

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".

- Repeated attacks -

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 off Oman 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.

Oman's foreign ministry on Saturday condemned "repeated attacks on vessels transiting the Strait of Hormuz", without naming Iran.

It also said that "ongoing negotiations regarding navigation arrangements in the Strait of Hormuz are proceeding in a positive and constructive atmosphere", and urged against any actions that might jeopardise progress.

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".

International law generally forbids tolling in such waterways.

Meanwhile, Yemen's Iran-backed Houthi rebels announced on Sunday that they had struck a Saudi oil facility on the country's Red Sea coast, after the Gulf kingdom said it had extinguished a fire at the site, as the Iranian-allied movement attempts to cut off a second vital waterway.

- Security agreement -

Turkey's foreign minister said on Saturday he expected Egypt to join a joint defence agreement between Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan designed to stabilise the region, calling the country a "natural partner on all issues".

"I believe that at the next stage Egypt will also be among us in the alliance. We already act toward one another as if we were alliance members," Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said in an interview.

A drone struck US assets at an Egyptian port on the Mediterranean last month, marking the first drone attack on Egyptian territory since the outbreak of the Iran war.

Fidan said the agreement does not target a specific country.

"There is no common threat that we have put in writing," he said, according to the news agency.

Pakistan's foreign ministry said Friday the pact meant an attack on any member would be regarded as an attack on all, adding it was "intended to strengthen collective deterrence".

(B.Smith--TAG)