Iran says final deal remains distant as Strait of Hormuz stays closed

Fresh uncertainty gripped the Gulf as the Strait of Hormuz remained shut in the escalating standoff between Iran and the United States, with Iran’s powerful parliament speaker making clear that, despite signs of progress, any final peace agreement was still a long way off.

With mediation efforts continuing after high-level talks in Pakistan ended without a breakthrough, Tehran said the vital maritime chokepoint would stay closed unless Washington lifts its blockade of Iranian ports.

Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, speaker of the Iranian parliament, said in a televised address last night that talks with Washington had yielded “progress” but stressed that “there are many gaps and some fundamental points remain”.

“We are still far from the final discussion,” said Mr Ghalibaf, one of Tehran’s negotiators in efforts to end the war launched by Israel and the United States against the Islamic republic.

US President Donald Trump said “very good conversations” were under way with Iran, while cautioning Tehran against attempting to “blackmail” the United States.

Iran had announced on Friday that the Strait of Hormuz — the route for about a fifth of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas shipments — would reopen after a temporary ceasefire was reached to pause Israel’s war with Iran’s ally Hezbollah in Lebanon.

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That move initially calmed global markets and drove oil prices sharply lower, but Tehran later reversed itself after Mr Trump said the US blockade of Iranian ports would remain in place until a final agreement was secured.

“If America does not lift the blockade, traffic in the Strait of Hormuz will definitely be limited,” Mr Ghalibaf said.

Iran’s supreme leader Mojtaba Khamenei, who has not appeared publicly since assuming power after his father was killed in the war’s opening strikes, said in a written message that Iran’s navy “stands ready” to defeat the United States.

Mr Trump accused Iran of getting “a little cute” with its recent actions and warned Tehran not to try to “blackmail” the US by changing course on the strait.

“We have very good conversations going on,” the president told reporters at the White House, adding that the United States was “taking a tough stand”.

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards warned that any vessel attempting to transit the strait without permission “will be considered cooperation with the enemy, and the offending vessel will be targeted”.

Tracking data showed that a small number of oil and gas tankers passed through the strait early yesterday during the short-lived reopening, but others turned back and by late afternoon hardly any ships were still moving through the waterway.

A UK maritime security agency said the Revolutionary Guards opened fire on one tanker, while security intelligence firm Vanguard Tech reported that the force had threatened to “destroy” an empty cruise ship trying to escape the Gulf.

In a separate episode, the UK agency said it had received a report of a vessel “being hit by an unknown projectile, which caused damage” to shipping containers but did not spark a fire.

The Indian foreign ministry said it had summoned the Iranian ambassador to protest over a “shooting incident” involving two Indian-flagged ships in the strait.

On the diplomatic front, Egypt — which has taken part in mediation efforts alongside Pakistan — struck an optimistic note yesterday, with Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty saying Cairo and Islamabad hoped to secure a final agreement “in the coming days”.

One of the main obstacles in the negotiations has been Iran’s stockpile of near-weapons-grade enriched uranium.

Mr Trump said on Friday that Iran had agreed to hand over its roughly 440 kilograms of enriched uranium.

“We’re going to get it by going in with Iran, with lots of excavators,” he said.

Iran’s foreign ministry has said the stockpile, believed to be buried deep beneath rubble from US bombing during last June’s 12-day war, was “not going to be transferred anywhere” and that surrendering it “to the US has never been raised in negotiations”.

The Middle East war began on 28 February with a massive wave of US-Israeli attacks on Iran, even as Washington and Tehran were still engaged in negotiations.

The conflict quickly spilled across the region, with Iran striking neighbouring Gulf countries that host US military bases, and Iran-backed Hezbollah drawing Lebanon into the war by firing rockets at Israel.

A French soldier was killed and three others were wounded in an ambush yesterday on UN peacekeepers in Lebanon, an attack France’s president blamed on Hezbollah, an allegation the group denied.

Israel’s military also said two of its soldiers had been killed in combat in southern Lebanon since a 10-day truce between Israel and Lebanon took effect on Friday.