Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, has declared the Strait of Hormuz “completely open” to commercial vessels, raising hopes for an eventual end to the Middle East conflict and causing oil prices to fall. However, analysts warn that a widespread resumption of passage through the vital waterway is not imminent.
US President Donald Trump claimed on social media that Iran had agreed never to close the strait again, calling it “a great and brilliant day for the world”. But Iran’s parliamentary speaker, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, countered that if the US blockade continues, “the strait of Hormuz will not remain open”, and that the strait’s status “will be determined by the field, not by social media”.
The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has imposed restrictions: commercial vessels may travel only along a determined route and with IRGC navy permission. The US blockade of Iranian ports and shipping remains in force, according to Trump, until a “transaction” with Tehran is complete.
Trump also stated that Iran agreed to suspend its nuclear programme indefinitely and would not receive frozen US funds. He dismissed a reported $20bn cash-for-uranium deal as “totally false”. Iranian authorities have not commented on these nuclear claims; Tehran has long insisted on its right to enrich uranium domestically.
The announcement coincides with a fragile 10-day truce in Lebanon between Israel and Hezbollah, though Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, said Israel had “not yet finished the job” and an Israeli drone strike soon after killed one person in southern Lebanon.
In Paris, representatives from around 40 countries met, co-chaired by France and the UK, to discuss an international plan to secure the Strait of Hormuz, which before the conflict carried about a fifth of the world’s oil and gas supplies.
