DUBAI, Aug 9 \u2014 Iran has set a list of demands for reopening the Strait of Hormuz, including compensation for war damages, complicating efforts to restore passage through the waterway vital to the global economy.<\/p>\n
Tehran has imposed an effective blockade of the strait since the United States and Israel struck Iran in late February, and wants to charge tolls for passage, attacking ships it accuses of attempting to circumvent its preferred route.<\/p>\n
Continued attacks in the strait, which was free to transit before the war, led to the collapse of an April ceasefire, with mediators since urging both sides to return to the terms of a June memorandum.<\/p>\n
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said discussions with Oman over transit and management of the strait were \u201capproaching the final stages\u201d, but added that reopening Hormuz \u201cis subject to other conditions and compensation for the violation\u201d of the June agreement.<\/p>\n
Security chief Mohammad Bagher Zolghadr on Saturday laid out a list of demands for reopening the strait, including an end to the \u201cwar and aggression against Iran and its allies in Lebanon, Palestine, Yemen, and Iraq\u201d.<\/p>\n
He also demanded the lifting of a parallel US naval blockade of Iran, the end of sanctions, the release of frozen assets and compensation for wartime damage, according to remarks reported by Tasnim news agency.<\/p>\n
Iran\u2019s Revolutionary Guards, meanwhile, said Hormuz\u2019s reopening had \u201cnothing to do with the negotiations between Iran and Oman\u201d, adding that the \u201cenemy is forced to accept Iran\u2019s conditions for the opening of the strait\u201d.<\/p>\n
Repeated attacks\u00a0<\/p>\n
The comments came as transit through Hormuz has dropped significantly, with Iran targeting ships it accuses of skirting its preferred route through Iranian waters.<\/p>\n
The United Arab Emirates\u2019 foreign ministry on Saturday condemned what it called a \u201chostile Iranian attack that targeted a tanker belonging to ADNOC (Abu Dhabi National Oil Company) with a missile while it was transiting the Strait of Hormuz, without causing casualties\u201d.<\/p>\n
Later on Saturday, the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) said a ship was hit by a projectile off Oman in the Strait of Hormuz, causing a fire that was extinguished but no casualties.<\/p>\n
It was unclear whether they were referring to the same ship.<\/p>\n
On Friday, ADNOC had put out a statement saying that since the start of the war, 15 of its vessels had been attacked in Hormuz, \u201cincluding three vessels this week alone\u201d.<\/p>\n
Oman\u2019s foreign ministry on Saturday condemned \u201crepeated attacks on vessels transiting the Strait of Hormuz\u201d, without naming Iran.<\/p>\n
It also said that \u201congoing negotiations regarding navigation arrangements in the Strait of Hormuz are proceeding in a positive and constructive atmosphere\u201d, and urged against any actions that might jeopardise the progress.<\/p>\n
The previous Iran-US deal \u2013 meant to serve as a jumping-off point for negotiations on a permanent settlement \u2013 had said Iran and Oman would hash out future arrangements for the strait in discussion with other Gulf countries and \u201cin line with the applicable international law\u201d.<\/p>\n
International law generally forbids tolling in such waterways.<\/p>\n
Security agreement\u00a0<\/p>\n
Turkey\u2019s foreign minister said Saturday he expected Egypt to join a joint defence agreement between Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan designed to stabilise the region, calling the country a \u201cnatural partner on all issues\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cI believe that at the next stage Egypt will also be among us in the alliance. We already act toward one another as if we were alliance members,\u201d Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said in an interview.<\/p>\n
A drone struck US assets at an Egyptian port on the Mediterranean last month, marking the first drone attack on Egyptian territory since the outbreak of the Iran war.<\/p>\n
Fidan said the agreement does not target a specific country.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is no common threat that we have put in writing,\u201d he said, according to the news agency.<\/p>\n
Pakistan\u2019s foreign ministry said Friday the pact meant an attack on any member would be regarded as an attack on all, adding it was \u201cintended to strengthen collective deterrence\u201d. \u2013 AFP<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"DUBAI, Aug 9 \u2014 Iran has set a list of demands for reopening the Strait of Hormuz, including…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":241702,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[28],"tags":[211,22978,102,28136,188,101,28279],"class_list":["post-241701","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-strait-of-hormuz","tag-abbas-araghchi","tag-abu-dhabi-national-oil-company","tag-hormuz","tag-mohammad-bagher-zolghadr","tag-revolutionary-guards","tag-strait-of-hormuz","tag-uk-maritime-trade-operations"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@iran\/117064209690733009","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/241701","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=241701"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/241701\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/241702"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=241701"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=241701"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=241701"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}