Iran Insists Strait of Hormuz Will Stay Closed Until Trump Agrees to Demands

Iran said on Monday that any deal with Oman on shipping in the Strait of Hormuz would not lead to the waterway being fully reopened and that the route would remain closed until the United States agreed to demands including lifting a naval blockade.

The comments were the latest sign that Iran sees its grip on the strait — which has driven up global energy prices, creating a political headache for President Trump — as its best form of leverage in negotiations with Washington.

Esmail Baghaei, spokesman for the Iranian Foreign Ministry, said at a news conference on Monday that the focus of the talks with Oman was “on reaching an understanding over a route for the safe p***age of shipping,” Iranian state media reported.

The Oman talks were proceeding smoothly, Mr. Baghaei added, according to the reports, but “this issue is separate from the discussion of reopening the Strait of Hormuz,” which was “contingent upon the removal of the conditions that have been imposed on the Islamic Republic of Iran” by the United States.

The Strait of Hormuz, running between Iran and Oman, is a key route for the oil and gas trade. Tehran effectively closed the waterway after the United States and Israel launched their military campaign against Iran in late February.

Last week, a top Iranian national security official issued a set of demands that he said the United States must meet before Tehran would fully reopen the strait. Those included the lifting of the U.S. naval blockade and sanctions on Iran, the withdrawal of American forces from around the country, the payment of war reparations, the release of frozen Iranian ***ets, and the end of attacks on Iran’s allies in the region.

Most of those demands were detailed in a cease-fire agreement that the United States and Iran signed in June, though that doblockent said sanctions would be fully lifted only in the event of a final deal regarding Iran’s nuclear program.

The June agreement quickly fell apart, and most of its terms were violated within weeks. Mr. Trump has declared the deal “over.”

On Sunday, Mr. Trump told Axios that economic distress and high inflation in Iran would eventually force Tehran to agree to a new deal. He did not threaten further military action against Iran, saying, “We are low-keying it.”

The Iranian authorities, however, believe that they can withstand greater economic pain than Mr. Trump, who has midterm elections in November to consider.

At the news conference on Monday, Mr. Baghaei said it was “up to the American side to stop and compensate for its illegal and destructive actions” in order to “talk about the next steps.”