Iran Sets Hormuz Terms; Trump Says Tehran Is 'Begging'
Iran’s conditions for reopening the Strait of Hormuz took shape: a temporary two-lane corridor agreed with Oman through Iranian waters, activated only if Washington lifts its naval blockade, returns to the summer memorandum and halts operations — “the United States must fully implement all of the commitments it has violated”, its deputy foreign minister said. President Trump dismissed the terms, saying Iran is “begging to make a deal” and insisting the strait “is open”. The war passed six months today.
Both sides are now performing for the same audience — the markets and the mediators — and their scripts cannot both be true: a strait cannot be simultaneously “open”, as the president insists, and the subject of a corridor negotiation whose entire premise is that it is shut. Iran’s terms are maximalist by design, an opening bid lodged through Oman with the mine-clearing annex already drafted; Washington’s dismissal is equally performative, since the same administration reportedly sent its spy chief to discuss this very file in Moscow. Six months in, the shape of an eventual deal is visible to everyone — corridor first, sanctions sequencing after — which is precisely why neither side can be first to say so. Watch the mediators’ travel schedules; they move when something is real.