TEHRAN, Iran – Iran and the United States have competing claims over the fate of ships passing through the Strait of Hormuz, where they maintain contact through intermediaries but carry out threatening trade.
Iranian state media published the latest statement attributed to Mojtaba Khamenei on Saturday. Khamenei has not been seen or heard from since March, when he was elected as the new supreme leader by a group of clergymen.
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Referring to his father, Khamenei, who was assassinated on February 28, the first day of the war between the United States and Israel, he said: “We vow to take revenge on the criminals and shameful murderers with your pure blood and the blood of all the martyrs of these two wars. This revenge is our country’s demand and must be carried out.”
He stressed that this is a national policy and is not dependent on any particular official. “Soon, each and every free person of the world will carry out a part of this sacred mission,” he said.
Khamenei’s comments echoed calls for revenge by religious hardliners at Ali Khamenei’s funeral this week.
On Friday, in Mashhad, where Ali Khamenei was buried, chief negotiator Mohammad Berger Ghalibaf and other officials supporting negotiations with the United States were present as a crowd chanted: “Negotiations with the enemy are a betrayal of the motherland.” “Anyone who tries to negotiate peace with the United States is a traitor,” Ali Khomeini, the grandson of Ruhollah Khomeini, who founded the Islamic Republic after the 1979 revolution, said in a televised animated speech.
US President Donald Trump, however, did not provide details, but said he believed he was first on Iran’s “kill list” and had left instructions to retaliate if an attempt was made on his life.
“The missile is locked, loaded and aimed at the Islamic Republic of Iran,” he wrote on his Truth Social platform. “The order has already been given and the U.S. military is ready, willing and able to completely destroy and destroy all of Iran for one year, subject to extension.”
President Trump said he believes the “ceasefire” agreement, which has been repeatedly violated, is over after the latest exchange of attacks between the two countries earlier this week, but that mediated talks could continue. On Friday, Qatari mediators visited Iran for talks aimed at easing tensions with the United States, and on Saturday, Iran’s foreign minister visited Oman for talks.
Ali Baez, director of the Washington-based Crisis Group’s Iran project, said the revenge rhetoric is for domestic consumption and diplomacy is aimed at preventing another punitive war.
“President Trump’s declaration of an end to the ceasefire increases the cost of talks, but does not necessarily increase their usefulness. Both sides seem to recognize that the alternative is an escalation that neither side can afford or reliably control,” he said.
On Friday, unnamed Trump administration officials claimed in a briefing with US media that Iranian officials had privately told Washington that an “errant” faction of hardliners was trying to undermine negotiations by launching an attack on the Strait of Hormuz.
U.S. media reports said the Trump campaign expected after the Oman meeting that Araghchi would publicly or tacitly admit that attacking tankers and commercial ships earlier this week was a mistake.
Baez said that while the claims about Iran’s private communications are difficult to believe, it is convenient for the United States because blaming hardliners obscures the door to diplomacy.
“The real test is not what Iranian officials have reportedly said in private, but whether the two sides can find a way to stop the firefight and get back to exchanging words,” he added.
“No share”
While Washington’s insistence is to increase pressure on Iran while leaving diplomatic outlets open, official accounts from Iranian officials emphasize that they intend to exercise some control over the strait passage.
Tehran also considers any movement through the US-backed southern route near Oman, and the revocation of oil sanctions exemptions, to be in violation of a memorandum of understanding (MoU) agreed between the two countries last month. It also calls for the full reopening of the strait, through which one-fifth of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas passes during peacetime, and for controlled demining.
Iranian Ambassador to the United Nations Amir Saeed Iravani told reporters outside the Security Council in New York on Friday that any attempt by external actors to “obstruct or establish a power agreement” would violate the memorandum of understanding and delay the full restoration of maritime traffic.
The Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) Navy said in a statement on Thursday that traffic in the Strait of Hormuz had gradually recovered to about 50% of pre-war levels by the time of the attack, thanks to Iran’s cooperation, but ships must only travel through designated routes and foreigners “will not be involved” in the management of the strait.
The day before, the military’s Central Command also pledged not to allow the United States or any foreign country to interfere in the management of the strait “under any circumstances.”
To implement this policy and coordinate authorized transit, Iran established the Persian Gulf Straits Authority.
But the Governing Council of the London-based International Maritime Organization (IMO), the United Nations’ maritime agency, on Friday “strongly condemned” Iran’s decision to “establish an organization purporting to control traffic in the strait.”
The IMO called on its 176 member states to reject “Iran’s claims of sovereignty over the Strait of Hormuz and claims of jurisdiction over third-party waters in and around the Strait that violate the sovereignty, sovereign rights and exclusive jurisdiction of those states” and “not to recognize any Iranian decision aimed at shutting down, obstructing, obstructing, or otherwise interfering with international institutions.” “Rights of navigation and passage.”
Also on Friday, the U.S. Treasury Department imposed new Iran-related sanctions, the first since the memorandum of understanding was signed on June 17, and named multiple individuals and entities that have said they would retaliate for attacks on international shipping in the straits. Among them were Ali Ansari, a “financial intermediary” with reported ties to Mojtaba Khamenei, and a number of foreign exchange companies.
Negar Mortazavi, a senior fellow at the Center for International Policy, said that while “there may be disagreements within Tehran over tactics and the level of military pressure,” he added that the standoff in Hormuz was rooted in a “broader conflict” over the implementation of the memorandum.
“Iran believes that Strait trade traffic should be coordinated in coordination with Tehran, but the United States appears to be trying to impose its own interpretation without that coordination,” Mortazavi said.
Mortazavi noted that Iran “has not closed the door to negotiations” and said Iran will continue negotiations while using calibrated military pressure to establish its version. It added: “Iran believes that diplomacy without deterrence will give the US and Israel time to regroup and resume war later.”
