Negotiations over reopening the Strait of Hormuz have become more difficult after Iran and the United States exchanged new demands, raising doubts about a broader agreement to end their five-month war.
Iran says the strait will not reopen until Washington meets political and economic conditions, while the United States is demanding compensation over deaths and injuries linked to conflicts and attacks over several decades. The dispute has also pushed oil prices higher as hopes for a deal faded.
What the two sides are demanding
US President Donald Trump said Iran should pay compensation for damage linked to Iranian actions. He called for compensation for families of Iranian protesters killed during January unrest and for people killed or harmed in Lebanon, Syria, Yemen and Gaza. He also named the families of 17 US sailors killed in the October 2000 attack on the USS Cole in Yemen, which the source says was blamed on al-Qaeda, not Iran.
Iran’s Supreme National Security Council has set six conditions for reopening the waterway: an end to US threats and insults; a permanent end to attacks against Iran and its allies in Lebanon, Palestine, Yemen and Iraq; the lifting of the US naval blockade on Iranian ports; the withdrawal of US naval and air forces from around Iran; compensation for damage from what Iran calls two imposed wars; the lifting of sanctions; and the unconditional release of frozen Iranian assets.
Related coverage: Mohsen Rezaei takes Iran’s top security post amid Hormuz talks.
How the Strait of Hormuz became the central issue
Iran essentially closed the strait to shipping shortly after the war began at the end of February. Before the US-Israel war on Iran, the waterway carried one-fifth of global oil and liquefied natural gas supplies, making its reopening an international economic concern.
Iran says it is negotiating directly with Oman on a future shipping arrangement, including new shipping lanes and shared management of the waterway. Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said those discussions had reached their final stages. Iran has separately said it is not holding direct talks with the United States, although messages are understood to be moving through intermediaries. Washington says it is directly involved in the negotiations.
What the demands mean for a wider peace agreement
Analysts cited by Al Jazeera said broader US-Iran peace negotiations are unlikely to restart until the dispute over the strait and its future management is resolved. Negotiating positions appear to be hardening, with both governments putting forward demands that go beyond simply ending the current fighting.
More context: Hormuz reopening remains out of reach as Iran issues demands.
Analyst Negar Mortazavi said Trump’s compensation demands could make an agreement especially difficult for Tehran if they become a formal condition rather than a negotiating position. She said Iran is seeking guarantees that the conflict will not resume and economic relief after the war. Iran has also said it has lost trust in US negotiators because the United States launched attacks on Iran three times while previous talks were under way.
Oil prices rose by more than 5 percent after Trump’s new demands and increased again as expectations for an agreement weakened. The standoff has been described by Tehran-based analyst Hossein Royvaran as a contest between the closure of the strait and a US blockade, with pressure mounting on both countries through higher costs and the effects of the war.
Also read: Iranian families struggle as food prices surge during wartime.
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