FM Abbas Araghchi said Iran is collaborating separately with Oman on shipping routes, but the transport of Hormuz is dependent on the US meeting conditions.
Amid ceasefire violations and disagreements over the future of the Strait of Hormuz, Iran has not yet decided whether to resume talks with the United States to end the war.
Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Alaghushi said in a Telegram post on Saturday that “we have not yet decided on resuming negotiations with the United States,” repeating remarks he made to Iranian news outlet Shahrah News.
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Mediators from both Qatar and Pakistan have exchanged messages and been 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) with Pakistan in June and said a new path out of the conflict must be charted.
He said Iran was working separately with Oman on the technical process to establish a new shipping route in the Strait of Hormuz, but the passage of ships was conditional on a political solution being reached.
“The previously existing route is no longer functional, so we need to define a new route. We are currently designing an interim route that will become the final route in the next stage,” the minister said.
He added: “The resumption of shipping traffic in the Strait of Hormuz depends on the fulfillment of other conditions that the United States must comply with.”
Aragushi’s comments came on the same day that US President Donald Trump said, “Once we have defeated Iran…we will declare the Strait of Hormuz as US territory.”
In response, Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister for Justice and International Affairs Kazem Ghalibabadi said on the X program, “The Strait of Hormuz has always belonged to Iran, it belongs to Iran, and it will always belong to Iran.”
Control of the vital waterway remains in dispute as the two countries exchange views.
On Friday, the UAE’s Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) announced that one of its vessels was attacked while transiting the Strait of Hormuz. This is the latest in a series of similar incidents over the past few weeks.
US turns to economic pressure
After six months of fighting that failed to achieve the US and Israeli goals of overthrowing the Iranian leader and opening the Strait of Hormuz, the US now appears to be moving toward using economic pressure to achieve its goals.
U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Thursday that the United States will soon apply new economic measures to put pressure on Iran.
“This will be a combination of an economic isolation the world has never seen before and a continued closure of the Strait of Hormuz that will prevent goods from entering and leaving Iranian ports,” he said in an interview on Newsmax.
In August, the United States announced steps to dismantle a web of currency exchange and shell companies that it accused of helping Iran secretly move hundreds of millions of dollars through the international financial system.
“Iran’s shadow banking system is collapsing in the face of economic fury, and the regime is running out of ways to move money,” Bessent said when these sanctions were announced.
This strategy is not new. Iran has faced increasingly tough economic sanctions from the United States and other countries since its 1979 revolution. Economic problems have repeatedly sparked highly destabilizing protests, but none have led to meaningful regime change.
Mark Ginsburg, a former US ambassador and White House Middle East policy adviser, told Al Jazeera that while the US has been using maximum pressure tactics for years, the current situation is unique and the White House lacks a clear strategy to resolve the conflict.
“It’s a kind of economic chicken game: Who will jump off the side of the road before they collide?” he said. “Ultimately, I think the regime will fall before the Iranian government falls.”
