Iran makes public the seven conditions for reopening the Strait of Hormuz

On October 4 the speaker of the Iranian parliament, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, made public the seven conditions Tehran is setting for Washington to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, confirming that the strait will remain closed until they are met. We reported on this on October 2, when a new tanker had been hit as Washington increased pressure on Tehran: today, for the first time, the full list of Iranian demands has been formally made public by the person leading negotiations on Tehran’s behalf.

The conditions, according to Ghalibaf, are based on the Islamabad memorandum signed in June and include an end to the US naval blockade in the area, the lifting of sanctions on Iranian oil, the unfreezing of Iranian assets frozen abroad, and a halt to all military action against Iran and its allies in the region. Iran’s chief negotiator linked the announcement to a seven-day plan presented to the United Nations General Assembly: if Washington accepts the conditions, normal maritime traffic would resume by the seventh day, the date on which negotiations on a final agreement would begin.

The announcement comes as the situation on the ground remains tense. Over the previous weekend the British maritime agency UKMTO reported that at least two tankers were hit by unidentified projectiles in waters near Oman and Iran, an episode that adds to the series of attacks on commercial vessels the newspaper has been following since August. It is not yet clear whether the weekend attacks are connected to the publication of the conditions or represent a separate chapter in the Gulf crisis.

Tehran’s decision to make the full list of demands public marks a shift in tone from previous months, when the conditions had only been hinted at partially or through informal diplomatic channels. Putting the seven points in writing — and explicitly linking them to the Islamabad memorandum — shifts the ball into Washington’s court: the US administration has not yet publicly responded to the terms listed by Ghalibaf.

It remains to be seen whether the Iranian diplomatic initiative will find a response in Washington or whether, as has already happened several times since August, the publication of written conditions will fail to translate into actual negotiations. The mechanism of the seven-day plan in any case requires preliminary US acceptance before any verification on the ground can begin.