Iran ties Hormuz reopening to US concessions on several demands

Iran said it was nearing a final pact with Oman defining new shipping lanes between them through the Strait of Hormuz but repeated that the U.S. must meet other conditions, including compensation and an end to sanctions and military threats, before the strategic waterway is reopened. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said on Sunday an agreement with Oman on the strait was in its "final stages" but reiterated comments made on Saturday that Tehran would not reopen the channel unless the U.S. met certain demands made by Tehran. The deal with Iran would set out the new shipping lanes to be used once the U.S. fulfils those conditions and the strait is reopened, Iran's Mehr news agency quoted him as saying. Iran and the U.S. are not engaged in direct talks, and Tehran will not start them as long as Washington breaches an interim deal signed in June, Araqchi said, adding that messages were being exchanged through intermediaries. U.S. President Donald Trump said in an interview with Axios that the U.S. was "low-keying" it with Iran. "We are only semi-negotiating with them. We are just watching Iran with its huge inflation and the fact they have no money." Araqchi said reopening the strait would depend in part on the U.S. paying compensation for damage it caused in widespread attacks on Iran. The secretary of Iran's top national security body, Mohammad Baqer Zolqadr, also listed ending further U.S. threats against Iran; halting aggression toward Iran and its Lebanese, Palestinian, Yemeni and Iraqi allies; removing a U.S. naval blockade in the Gulf; lifting sanctions on Iran; and releasing frozen Iranian assets. Washington and Tehran agreed to a ceasefire in June, but the U.S. reimposed a blockade on Iranian shipping in the Gulf in July, a move that Tehran said violated the truce, which by then had already broken down. "Once the deal is announced to restore commercial shipping without impediments, the United States will lift the blockade of Iranian ports," the U.S. official told Reuters on condition of anonymity. U.S. actions would be tied to Iran's implementation of its commitments, the official said.