Iran to control Strait of Hormuz traffic until deal is reached to end war: Top security body

Iran’s Supreme National Security Council (SNSC) says the Islamic Republic will maintain control of all traffic through the strategic Strait of Hormuz until a negotiated end to the US-Israeli-imposed war is achieved.

The SNSC’s secretariat issued a statement on Saturday regarding the state of play in negotiations with the United States, mediated by Pakistan, to end the ongoing war, which has temporarily been halted after a ceasefire was announced on April 8.

The ceasefire will expire on Wednesday. A first round of talks in Islamabad failed to produce an agreement, with Iranian officials blaming the US side for putting forward excessive demands and shifting its position at the negotiating table.

One sticking point was Iran’s control over the Strait of Hormuz, which the Islamic Republic closed to shipping linked to the aggressors and their allies shortly after the war began on February 28.

Noting that most US military logistics in the Persian Gulf pass through the Strait of Hormuz, which Iran considers a threat to its national security and regional stability, the SNSC said Iran will continue to maintain oversight and control of all traffic through the waterway until the war permanently comes to an end.

Iran will enforce this by obtaining full data on all transiting vessels, issuing transit permits according to regulations tailored to wartime conditions, collecting fees for security, safety, and environmental protection services, and mandating specific navigation routes, the statement said.

“Should the enemy attempt to disrupt shipping or impose measures such as a naval blockade, the Islamic Republic of Iran will consider that a violation of the ceasefire and will prevent the conditional and limited opening of the Strait of Hormuz,” it added.

The SNSC noted that Iran had conditionally reopened the Strait of Hormuz to commercial shipping on Friday after the US and the Israeli regime accepted to cease hostilities on all fronts, including a halt to Israeli attacks on Lebanon, which was a key Iranian precondition for accepting the temporary cease-fire.

However, it said that Iran views a continued US naval blockade as a violation of the ceasefire and will not allow conditional and restricted passage through the Strait of Hormuz if the blockade remains in place.

The statement said that Iran’s decision to reopen the Strait in a limited way, which was announced by Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi on Friday, also came after the US submitted new proposals for a peace deal through a Pakistani delegation, led by Army chief Field Marshal Asim Munir, which traveled to Tehran earlier this week.

It said that the conditional reopening had only applied to commercial shipping, insisting that military vessels and commercial ships linked to “adversarial countries” will continue to be banned from the key waterway until the war is “definitively ended” and “sustainable peace” is achieved in the region.

The SNSC reiterated in its statement that Iran has yet to respond to new US proposals for a possible deal, which came after Iranian and US delegations failed to reach an agreement following intensive negotiations in Pakistan on April 11-12.

According to the statement, Iran began receiving ceasefire requests as early as the tenth day of the war following the US-Israeli setbacks on the battlefield and thanks to the “historic and unparalleled resistance” of the Iranian people and armed forces.

The Islamic Republic of formally agreed to negotiations on the 40th day of the war, after the US president officially accepted Iran’s 10-point plan as the framework for talks, it pointed out.

The Iranian delegation, operating under “deep mistrust” toward the United States, rigorously pursued the demands of the Iranian people during the talks in Islamabad, which lasted for 21 hours, the statement said.

Despite having agreed to Iran’s 10-point plan prior to the talks, Washington introduced “new and excessive demands” during the discussions, which were met with a firm response from the Iranian team, it added.