Iran refutes Trump’s claim to ‘control’ Hormuz: What’s the latest in talks?

Iran has refuted President Donald Trump’s claim that Washington has “total control” of the Strait of Hormuz, saying the critical waterway will remain closed until the United States accepts its demands and changes its “behaviour”.

According to the semi-official Tasnim news agency, Mohsen Rezaie , the newly appointed head of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, told China’s ambassador to Tehran, Cong Peiwu: “As long as America does not change its behaviour and does not accept Iran’s conditions, the Strait of Hormuz will not be opened.”

The Strait of Hormuz, through which one-fifth of global oil and natural gas is shipped during peacetime, has emerged as a key flashpoint in the US-Israel war on Iran, with peace talks stalled until the question of its management is resolved. Iran closed the strait shortly after US-Israeli bombing of Iran began at the end of February.

It currently says it is only talking to Oman, whose territorial waters the strait also passes through, about the future management of the waterway.

Commercial shipping remains severely disrupted in the strait, with attacks on vessels continuing on Tuesday when US forces targeted a vessel they said was headed for an Iranian port, in the Gulf of Oman.

At the same time, six people were killed in a Houthi attack on a Saudi cargo vessel in the Bab al-Mandeb Strait, according to Yemeni authorities, in what is being described as the first deaths from Houthi attacks on shipping since the US-Israel war on Iran began.

So, is the war entering another dangerous phase? And is there still a diplomatic route out?

“We totally control the Strait of Hormuz. We have control over it; nobody else, only us,” Trump told reporters at Joint Base Andrews on Tuesday.