Iran ties nuclear talks to Hormuz resolution and end of US blockade
Tehran's deadline for a US reply on reopening the Strait of Hormuz passed Tuesday without an answer.
Published
Map: The Gulf and Hormuz, marking Strait of Hormuz
Iran will not discuss its nuclear dossier until the Strait of Hormuz standoff is resolved and what it calls the Washington blockade is lifted, a diplomatic source says. The condition marks no shift from the position Iranian officials Rezaei and Araghchi have repeated for weeks.
Tehran's own deadline for a US reply on reopening the strait passed Tuesday without an answer. Iran says it is still awaiting a response to a seven-point plan it sent through Qatar. After the deadline lapsed, Iranian official Qalibaf warned that the region will not sell oil if Iran cannot sell its own.
President Trump has said the Iran war will end very soon. Vice President Vance has said Iran must change its behaviour before any deal is possible.
The sequencing Iran is demanding, strait first, blockade lifted first, nuclear talks only after, is the same dispute Tehran has flagged for weeks as the real sticking point, and it follows a US rejection of an earlier proposal to reopen the strait. Nothing in Tuesday's statement points to new leverage on either side or a shifted deadline, which leaves the standoff, and the risk premium built into crude prices, roughly where it has sat for weeks.