Iran’s FM issues stark warning over future U.S. talks as tensions escalate

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi reportedly announced that Iran and the United States are not engaged in direct negotiations and that Tehran will not resume as long as Washington breaches an interim deal signed in June.

He said that the agreement will set out the new shipping lanes to be used once the US complies with their terms and the Strait of Hormuz is finally reopened to traffic.

Araghchi reiterated Iran’s position that an agreement on the Strait of Hormuz between Tehran and Muscat was in the conclusion phases but would not automatically open the vital shipping waterway.

On Sunday, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) clarified that they would not open the Strait of Hormuz until the US accepts all of Tehran’s crucial demands.

In this connection, IRGC spokesman Hossein Mohebi said: “Our current strategy is to maintain this strait if the enemy accepts all our conditions and that the strait is now actually a theater of war for us and not just a waterway.”

Earlier, Araghchi said key talks with Oman over the transit and management of the strait were nearing completion, but the reopening of Hormuz remains contingent upon additional terms and compensation for the violation of the June agreement.

According to Security chief Mohammad Bagher Zolghadr, Iran has arranged a list of significant demands for reopening the strait to end the war and aggression against Iran and its allies in Lebanon, Palestine, Yemen and Iraq. He also called for the lifting of a parallel US naval blockade of Iran and for financial compensation to be provided for losses, damages or war costs.

Furthermore, IRGC also said that the Hormuz reopening had “nothing to do with the negotiations between Iran and Oman, and that the payments must be made by a defeated nation after a war to cover the harm caused before opening the Strait.