Strait of Hormuz
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said again, late yesterday, that Iran and Oman are close to an agreement on a temporary shipping route through the Strait of Hormuz. “Negotiations with Oman on the legal mechanism and management of the Strait of Hormuz, including the designation of a shipping route, are underway and we are very close to an agreement,” Araghchi told reporters on the sidelines of a news conference by President Masoud Pezeshkian on Saturday, reported IRNA. He said Iranian and Omani military and naval forces had held talks based on existing maps, and that a new route would be determined once those discussions were concluded.
Mohammad Bagher Zolghadr, secretary of the Supreme National Security Council, reinforced the point made by Iranian officials already that, even with an Iran-Oman agreement, the Strait will not be open until the US takes certain steps to end its threat to the region. Zolghadr said in a message on Saturday that the United States must stop threatening Iran and insulting its religious sanctities, and must permanently end its war and aggression against Iran and its allies in Lebanon, Palestine, Yemen and Iraq.
He also called on Washington to lift its maritime blockade, withdraw its naval and air forces from around Iran, pay in full for damages caused by two imposed wars against Iran, and remove sanctions imposed on the Iranian people. He further called for the unconditional release of Iranian assets that have been frozen or seized.
