Hormuz Stays Shut as Iran Denies Direct US Talks
Iran said it was not in direct negotiations with the United States and would not resume them until Washington ended what it called violations of an earlier understanding, with only messages passing through intermediaries. The Revolutionary Guard said the Strait of Hormuz would stay closed “until the enemy accepts all our conditions”. US Vice-President JD Vance said Iran had privately signalled it had “no plans” to charge tolls on shipping, a slight softening the two sides did not reconcile in public.
The competing signals left the standoff unresolved: Tehran talks of an arrangement with Oman in its “final stages” while insisting that is not the same as reopening the waterway, and Washington keeps promising a deal that never arrives. Mr Vance’s account of what Iran told the US privately went uncorroborated by Iran, underlining how much of the diplomacy is conducted at second hand. With the strait — through which a fifth of the world’s oil normally passes — still closed and attacks on shipping continuing, the risk of a wider war persists. Neither side shows any sign of blinking. Watch whether the Oman arrangement is signed or the blockade hardens.