Iran says no decision yet on a return to talks with the US

“We have not yet made a decision to restart negotiations with the United States,” Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said in a post on Telegram on Saturday, reiterating remarks he made to Iranian news outlet Shahrara News. Mediators from both Qatar and Pakistan are exchanging messages and are in contact with Iran, “but this does not mean negotiations”, he said.

Araghchi blamed the US for the return to violence following the signing of a memorandum of understanding (MoU) in Pakistan in June, and said a new path out of the conflict must be defined. He said Iran is separately working with Oman on a technical process to establish new routes for shipping in the Strait of Hormuz, but any transit of ships is contingent on a political solution being reached.

“The routes that previously existed are no longer functional, and a new route must be defined. We are currently designing a temporary route that will become the final route in the next stages,” the minister said. He added that “whether or not shipping traffic in the Strait of Hormuz resumes depends on the fulfilment of other conditions that the United States must adhere to”.

Araghchi’s comments came on the same day that US President Trump said: “After we finish defeating Iran, I’ll be declaring the Hormuz Strait a territory of the United States.” In response, Kazem Gharibabadi, Iran’s deputy foreign minister for legal and international affairs, said that the “Strait of Hormuz has been Iranian, is Iranian, and will remain Iranian”. As the two sides trade remarks, control over the key waterway remains contested.

On Friday, the UAE’s Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) said that one of its ships had come under attack while transiting the Strait of Hormuz – the latest in a string of such incidents over the past weeks. Following six months of fighting that has failed to fulfil Washington and Israel’s aim of overthrowing Iran’s leaders or opening the Strait of Hormuz, the US now appears to be signalling a move towards the use of economic pressure to achieve its goals.