The United States is demanding that Iran publicly commit to free and safe shipping in the Strait of Hormuz by Saturday, US media reported.
“The Trump administration is demanding that Iran issues on Saturday a public statement acknowledging the Strait of Hormuz is open and committing to stop firing on commercial ships,” US officials told reporters in a Friday briefing, according to reports in Axios and the Wall Street Journal.
The reports said the demands were delivered to Iran directly and through intermediaries.
It initially remained unclear what consequences Iran’s leadership could face if it failed to comply with the demands. In recent days, the US has struck targets in Iran, justifying the attacks by pointing to assaults on merchant shipping.
US President Donald Trump on Friday reaffirmed the end of the ceasefire in the Iran war. At the same time, he left the door open to talks. Trump wrote that Tehran had asked for a continuation of talks and the US had agreed. Trump put the word “talks” in quotation marks.
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei rejected claims that Tehran had sought negotiations with the US, saying Iran had complied with a request from a regional mediator to visit Tehran and discuss the current situation, according to the Iranian broadcaster Press TV.
Axios reported that Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi is expected to discuss the dispute over the Strait of Hormuz with his Omani counterpart on Saturday in Oman’s capital, Muscat.
The situation in the Middle East has recently escalated again, although the warring parties Iran and the US had already agreed to a framework agreement for more in-depth talks on ending the war.
A ceasefire has also been in place since April, but it has repeatedly been broken.
In response to attacks against tankers in the Strait of Hormuz, the US military repeatedly bombed targets in Iran. The US also reinstated sanctions on Iranian oil.
