IRAN SAYS HORMUZ TO STAY SHUT UNTIL US MEETS SEVEN CONDITIONS

Iran's parliament speaker and chief nuclear negotiator, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, has said the Strait of Hormuz will remain closed until Washington meets seven conditions based on the Islamabad Memorandum of Understanding, according to the state-linked news agency Nournews. Ghalibaf said the United States had made "some proposals through a mediator" days after Tehran put forward a seven-day roadmap for reopening the waterway. He said Iran's position remains "clear and definite" and that "the era of wasting time and dictating unilateral demands is over". Ghalibaf added that Iran was neither "excited" nor "intimidated" by the latest US proposals and would "both fight and negotiate", saying Tehran was "present on the military battlefield" and would "confront them with new surprises".

The Strait of Hormuz is used to ship around one-fifth of the world's oil and natural gas during peacetime, according to the reports. US President Donald Trump reportedly ruled out an earlier Iranian proposal to reopen the strait last week, shortly after Tehran had put forward its roadmap. Last month, Trump said at the United Nations General Assembly that the US would "annihilate" Iran. Iran's Foreign Minister, Abbas Araghchi, separately told foreign ambassadors and diplomats in Tehran on Sunday that Iran was "serious about finding diplomatic solutions just as we are serious about defending ourselves".

Araghchi said Iran had set out its conditions for reopening the strait clearly and that Tehran hoped Washington would choose diplomacy and accept its proposal. Ghalibaf's comments suggest Tehran regards the seven conditions linked to the Islamabad memorandum as non-negotiable for now, according to Nournews. No timeframe was given by either side for a resolution of the dispute. The exchange follows a period of direct and mediated communication between the two governments over the waterway's status, the reports said.