Tehran draws up list of demands for mediators, including end to wars in West Asia

Iran and Oman pursue new shipping corridor through the strait

Tehran uses world's key energy chokepoint as leverage in negotiations

A cargo ship passes through the Strait of Hormuz near the border of Oman's Musandam Governorate in March. [Reuters]
A cargo ship passes through the Strait of Hormuz near the border of Oman's Musandam Governorate in March. [Reuters]

Iran has told the United States it will reopen the Strait of Hormuz — the world's most critical energy shipping lane — only if Washington ends wars in the region, among other conditions. As the US intensifies economic pressure on Tehran, Iran appears to be using access to the strait as a bargaining chip to extract concessions.

Mohsen Rezaei, secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, said Thursday that mediating countries had asked Tehran to spell out its conditions for reopening the strait, and that the Iranian government was drawing up a list of demands.

"Iran's conditions for reopening include an end to wars in West Asia, including in Lebanon," Rezaei said in an interview with Lebanon's Al Manar TV.

Iran has previously laid out its conditions for reopening the strait: an end to US military involvement, the return of frozen Iranian assets, and a halt to wars in Lebanon and Gaza. Tehran's position is that Washington must fulfill these demands before the strait is reopened.

Iran is also pursuing a new shipping corridor through the Strait of Hormuz in coordination with Oman.

"Iran has reached an agreement with Oman to establish a new transit corridor," Rezaei said. "The corridor will span both Omani and Iranian territorial waters."

He added that if the US meets Iran's conditions, vessels would be permitted to pass through a designated central route within the strait.

By tying the reopening of the strait to broader diplomatic demands rather than treating it as a purely maritime matter, Iran has made normalization of the waterway contingent on the outcome of future negotiations with Washington.

Rezaei also pressed for US action during talks Thursday with Qatari Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, who visited Tehran that day. He said Iran would move to reopen the strait only after Washington took concrete steps to fulfill Tehran's demands.

Meanwhile, Rezaei shrugged off claims that Iran had plotted to assassinate a son of US President Donald Trump, calling the allegations "an outright lie."


sjy@heraldcorp.com