Iran official says Hormuz will remain closed unless US meets conditions

An Iranian official has declared the Strait of Hormuz will stay closed until the United States meets Iran’s conditions, escalating a standoff that has kept the world’s most important oil shipping lane disrupted since late February. The statement, tied to compliance disputes over a June 2026 memorandum of understanding between the two countries, underscores just how far apart Washington and Tehran remain on the terms for reopening a waterway that handles a massive share of global energy shipments. What Iran wants Iran’s demands aren’t small. The country’s national security chief has outlined an extensive list of prerequisites for reopening the strait, including sanctions relief and the return of frozen Iranian assets. Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy is the force maintaining the closure, and it has linked its actions directly to a US naval blockade on Iranian ports. In Tehran’s framing, the Hormuz shutdown is a mirror image of what Washington is doing to Iran, just applied to a much bigger piece of the global economy. Beyond sanctions and asset releases, Iran is pushing for something that would fundamentally change how the strait operates: transit fees of 5-7% on cargoe...