Iran says conveyed conditions to US for reopening Hormuz

TEHRAN: Iran’s top negotiator said Sunday that Tehran had conveyed to Washington through mediators its conditions for reopening the strategic Strait of Hormuz, which it has blockaded throughout the Middle East war.

The two foes are locked in a stalemate months into the conflict that began with US-Israeli strikes on Iran in late February.

Tehran has since maintained a stranglehold on the Strait of Hormuz, a vital shipping route for the world’s oil and gas, while Washington is pushing a campaign to choke the Islamic republic’s ports and economy.

“Our messages and the explanation of our conditions have been clearly conveyed to the other party through mediators,” said Iranian parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, who has acted as chief negotiator in talks to end the war.

“As long as the conditions are not met… and the US commitments are not honoured, it will be impossible to return to the situation from before the negotiations and to an open strait,” he added, according to state television.

Mohsen Rezaei, the head of Iran’s supreme national security council, said on Saturday that the Islamic republic had conveyed its conditions to the US via mediator Qatar.

“Our conditions are an end to the war on all fronts, the release of our frozen funds and an end to the naval blockade,” he said in an interview with Al-Jazeera.

Iranian authorities have said that mediator Pakistan’s Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi will travel to Tehran on Sunday for talks.

Iran’s Khatam al-Anbiya central military command, meanwhile, issued a threat against the United States on Sunday, in a statement carried by state television.

“We warn that if the US makes a mistake in dealing with Islamic Iran, all of that country’s bases and interests in the region will become the target of continuous, effective and painful attacks, without any limit or restraint,” it said.