Strait of Hormuz to remain closed unless US meets Iran's conditions

The deck of the patrol ship USS Tempest (PC2) in the Strait of Hormuz. (Wikimedia Commons/US Navy/Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Indra Beaufort)

JAKARTA - The Secretary of the Supreme National Security Council of Iran confirmed that the Strait of Hormuz would remain closed as long as the United States did not change its behavior and accept Tehran's conditions to end the war.

"As long as America does not change its behavior and does not accept Iran's conditions, the Strait of Hormuz will not be opened," said Mohsen Rezaei, a close ally of Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei, launching Al Arabiya from Tasnim (12/8).

"America must end the war, pay for Iran's frozen assets, and the war must end throughout the region, including in Lebanon and Gaza," he said.

"If an agreement is reached between Iran and Oman regarding the transit route through the Strait of Hormuz, this agreement will be separate from the issue of closing the Strait of Hormuz," Rezaei said.

The statement was the strongest indication yet that any deal in talks with Oman on the waterway would not immediately reopen it to shipping, if the US did not also abide by its commitments in a memorandum of understanding to end a conflict reached between Washington and Tehran in June.

Rezaei, who was appointed on Sunday as the second person in the body that coordinates Iran's security and foreign policy, said the conditions had been conveyed to the US through intermediaries.

Meanwhile, Mohammad Mokhber, an adviser to Khamenei, also stated on the X platform on Tuesday, "the punishment for the aggressor continues, and the Strait of Hormuz will not be opened until Iran's conditions are met."

Oil futures continued to rise on concerns about the fate of the strait.

There was no immediate response from Washington to Iran's latest statement, but President Donald Trump has previously made new demands from the US side - that Iran pay compensation for the dead in various wars, attacks, and demonstrations - and accused Tehran of being a "cunning negotiator."

"We will seek compensation for the damage they have caused over a 50-year period," President Trump said at the White House on Monday.

In an interview released Monday night, he laid out some of the options he has at this point in the conflict: simply "live with it" and let Tehran suffer economic failure, or hit them with "very, very hard."

"I would say I'm negotiating," Trump told "Real America's Voice" in the phone interview.

"They are very cunning negotiators," he said.

It is known that President Trump often changes his attitude between issuing escalation threats and claiming that a peace deal is in sight.