A deal between Iran and Oman to reopen the Strait of Hormuz is teetering over steep demands from Tehran for the United States and vice versa.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Iran on Sunday said the agreement to set up new shipping lanes was in its final stages but repeated \u200bthat the vital waterway would only reopen once Washington met certain conditions. Those stipulations include that the U.S. withdraw its naval blockade, pay Tehran compensation for damages from the war, unfreeze the country\u2019s assets, lift sanctions and permanently end the conflict against the regime and its regional allies.<\/p>\n
President Trump, in turn, on Monday demanded compensation from Iran for \u201call of the people that they have killed and gravely wounded with their roadside bombs and many conflicts,\u201d as well as to the families of protestors the Iranian government has killed over the past 50 years.<\/p>\n
He later amended his demand to insist Iran also be responsible for \u201cthe damages and death caused to the people of Lebanon, Syria, Yemen, and Gaza!\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI have instructed my representatives to put this firmly into any, and all, future negotiations,\u201d Trump wrote on Truth Social.<\/p>\n
The tit for tat is threatening to upend progress made in the Iran-Oman talks as the Trump administration presses the regime for its own concessions, even as Tehran\u2019s demands largely fall within the framework of the initial deal it signed with Washington in June.<\/p>\n
\u201cToday\u2019s response sounded to me like frustration kind of seeping out, understandably, because he\u2019s in a pretty difficult position right now,\u201d said Jason Campbell, a senior fellow at the Middle East Institute.<\/p>\n
Campbell added that in Iran reconstituting some of their demands made in the memorandum of understanding signed between the two sides earlier this summer, it\u2019s putting Trump in a politically sensitive place.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s going to be very difficult for him to claim any kind of a victory if, after all of this, the strait is reopened, but Iran now has more leverage over the strait, is now able to support itself better from the economic benefits of the strait,\u201d he told The Hill. \u201cIt\u2019s so close to the midterms, it\u2019s going to, in essence, look like a loss\u201d for Trump.<\/p>\n
Rosemary Kelanic, the director of the Middle East program at Defense Priorities, likewise saw Trump\u2019s lash out as \u201can expression of frustration\u201d rather than a real bargaining position from the United States.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cTrump\u2019s position is weakening, but then, as a result of that, [Iran is] pushing for more concessions from Trump,\u201d Kelanic told The Hill. \u201cBut more concessions is harder for Trump to give, so he\u2019s going to be less willing to give them. So, it\u2019s quite possible that no agreement comes out of this, and we don\u2019t get much further.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Strait of Hormuz, through which flows a fifth of global oil and liquefied natural gas shipments in times of peace, has been effectively closed by Iran since Feb. 28 when the U.S. and Israel began their war on the country. The strait\u2019s closure has driven up the price of fuel and other goods in the United States, a blow to the Republican Party ahead of the midterm elections.<\/p>\n
Iran and the U.S. \u2014 though not engaged in direct talks \u2014 are exchanging messages via intermediaries, according to Abbas Araghchi, the Iranian foreign minister.<\/p>\n
Vice President Vance told Fox News on Saturday that the two sides are working on setting up a traffic lane in the strait so that the ships can pass through safely but warned the war is still \u201cin the middle of the game,\u201d and that Tehran would need to provide assurances that it would not fire on transiting ships.<\/p>\n
\u201cI do think that we\u2019ve made some progress over the last few days,\u201d Vance said before adding, \u201cThis thing is not over.\u201d<\/p>\n
Talks between Iran and Oman, meanwhile, have tentatively promised an agreement that could come within days and open a shipping lane in the strait. But Tehran has warned the waterway would not be fully reopened until the U.S. meets its demands.<\/p>\n
Top Iranian security official Mohammad Bagher Zolghadr on Sunday laid out the country\u2019s conditions, asserting it would not open the strait \u201cuntil America corrects its behavior.\u201d<\/p>\n
Then on Sunday, Araghchi said a deal on the strait was in the \u201cfinal stages\u201d but repeated that Washington needed to meet its certain conditions.<\/p>\n
The stipulations appeared to ruffle Trump\u2019s feathers, as he quickly demanded the U.S. would require its own compensation from the country for past misdeeds.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey ask for money for the damage that we\u2019ve done. I said, \u2018That\u2019s a good idea. Well, we\u2019re going to ask for money for the damage they\u2019ve done over a 50-year period,\u2019\u201d Trump told reporters in the Oval Office on Monday. \u201cIf there\u2019s damages to be paid, I think Iran should pay those damages.\u201d<\/p>\n
The president also continued to insist that the strait is \u201copen now\u201d as an ongoing U.S. Navy blockade in the Gulf is allowing \u201cpeople in that we want to let in.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe control the strait 100 percent. Now, can [Iran] make trouble? Yeah, they can make trouble, but they\u2019re broke \u2026 and now they\u2019re paying a price,\u201d Trump added.<\/p>\n
The back-and-forth is diminishing prospects for a quick deal, despite optimism last week that such an agreement was near.<\/p>\n
Trump administration officials have repeatedly asserted that Iran cannot control access to the vital shipping lane. Top officials also have stressed that the U.S. would not make any immediate payments to Iran in past peace talks.<\/p>\n
But even as the president is frustrated by a lack of offramp to a deeply unpopular, six-month war, he appears more driven by desire to make the best deal for himself, according to Kelanic.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe wants to feel like he\u2019s gotten something out of this. He\u2019s the guy at the casino that\u2019s gambled it all on red on the roulette wheel and he\u2019s trying to gamble himself back to breaking even or doing better,\u201d Kelanic told The Hill. \u201cThere\u2019s always that temptation or that that haunting fear that he could take a bad deal today, but maybe he\u2019s missing out on some opportunity to find some way to get a better deal in the future.\u201d<\/p>\n
She added: \u201cIt\u2019s really hard for presidents to take the loss. It\u2019s how we ended up in forever wars in Afghanistan and Iraq because, especially in Afghanistan, nobody wanted to be the one that admitted defeat and came home.\u201d<\/p>\n
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