Iran’s Supreme National Security Council said Saturday the Strait of Hormuz will remain closed to shipping until the United States meets a broad set of demands, including a full withdrawal of American forces from the region, a permanent halt to military threats, and compensation for wartime damage.
Council secretary Mohammad Bagher Zolghadr, an IRGC commander, laid out six conditions in a statement carried by Iranian state broadcasting: an end to U.S. threats and what Zolghadr called insults against Iran’s national and religious values; a permanent cessation of attacks against Iran and its allies in Lebanon, Palestine, Yemen and Iraq; the lifting of the U.S. naval blockade paired with withdrawal of American naval and air forces from around Iran; compensation for damage from what he termed two “imposed wars”; the removal of sanctions; and the unconditional release of Iran’s frozen assets abroad.
An IRGC spokesperson, Hossein Mohebbi, said separately that reopening the strait was contingent on Washington accepting these terms and was not tied to the parallel talks Iran has been holding with Oman over managing traffic through the waterway — negotiations Tehran has previously said are close to concluding.
The demands mark an escalation from earlier, more incremental proposals. Some of the same issues appeared in a memorandum of understanding reached in June, but that document treated them as part of a phased, reciprocal process rather than a fixed list of preconditions, a distinction that puts Tehran’s current stance at odds with Washington’s own position in the talks.
The White House has not issued a formal response to the specific demands. The statement follows Trump’s announcement earlier this month that he was holding off on further military action against Iran to allow room for renewed diplomacy, after warning the U.S. military remained prepared to strike if talks failed. It also comes as Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi reiterated separately that Tehran will not resume direct talks with Washington until the U.S. addresses what Iran calls ongoing breaches of the interim agreement.
