There will be no direct talks between Iran and the U.S. as long as Washington continues to ignore Tehran’s demands for solving the Strait of Hormuz dispute, Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said on Sunday.
Reuters reports the Islamic state’s top diplomat added messages are being exchanged via intermediaries – not directly between the two parties.
Araqchi repeated Iran’s position that an agreement on the Strait of Hormuz between Tehran and Muscat was in the “final stages” but would not reopen the strategic waterway.
In comments reported by Mehr news agency and seen by Reuters, Araqchi said the agreement would set out the new shipping lanes to be used once the U.S. fulfils other conditions and the strait is reopened to traffic.
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Iran’s Revolutionary Guards maintain the Strait of Hormuz closure remains “until the enemy accepts all our conditions… the strait is now actually a theatre of war for us and not just a waterway”.
Araqchi spoke just hours after Iran’s top national security official told the United States it must “correct its behavior,” issuing a sweeping list of demands as Vice President JD Vance said Washington remains in the “middle of the game” and is continuing to apply diplomatic, economic, and military pressure on Tehran, as Breitbart News reported.
Mohammad Bagher Zolghadr, secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council and a former senior IRGC commander, demanded the United States end military action, vacate all military assets from the region and drop threats against Iran and its regional allies.
He also stipulated Washington must lift its naval blockade, compensate Tehran for war damages, lift sanctions, and unconditionally release frozen Iranian assets.
“Until America corrects its behavior, the Strait of Hormuz will not be reopened,” Zolghadr said in a statement carried by Iranian state media.