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Iran official downplays talk of peace deal

  • Märkte: Crude oil, Freight, Natural gas
  • 03.11.26

Tehran is not satisfied with recent diplomatic feelers from the US and will insist its conditions be met before allowing freedom of navigation through the strait of Hormuz, a senior Iranian official said on Tuesday.

The latest US diplomatic overture "was not convincing" and the US "must fully and explicitly address Iran's seven conditions and act upon them", Iran's supreme national security council secretary Mohsen Rezaei said in a social media post. "Only in this case will the strait of Hormuz be reopened."

Rezaei last week received a diplomatic missive from US vice president JD Vance. Qatari and other mediators subsequently enabled an exchange of messages between Washington and Tehran.

Such indirect dialogue has gone on even during a period of intense hostilities between the US and Iran. But US president Donald Trump attributed a drop in crude prices on Monday to progress in talks with Iran.

The seven conditions that Rezaei's post referenced effectively restate, and demand implementation of, the concessions Trump agreed to in June under a short-lived memorandum of understanding with Iran. Tehran, in particular, is eyeing repatriation of frozen Iranian assets in foreign banks, the lifting of the US naval blockade, and broad sanctions relief.

The Trump administration appears to believe that those concessions are no longer plausible. The US naval blockade has choked off Iran's crude exports since mid-July. A US military-assisted campaign has increased the flow of oil through the strait of Hormuz.

But the US-sponsored maritime operation has significantly increased freight and insurance costs for the tankers that do make it to the Gulf of Oman without being hit by Iran.

'This isn't really war'

Trump for weeks has said that the US and Iran would move quickly to conclude a new agreement following Tuesday's midterm congressional elections or, alternatively, that the US would resume direct strikes against Iran.

Trump leaned into both messages in an interview with Fox News on Tuesday morning, and also told Fox News that the US military on Monday evening carried out limited air strikes against an air defense installation on Iran's Qeshm Island in the strait of Hormuz.

"They built an anti-aircraft facility," Trump said. "It took them about two months. We watched it get built. As soon as it was completed, we hit it."

But Trump added that "this isn't really war". The US "can finish them off, or we can be nice and let thousands of people live that would get killed in a war".

Tehran, which in the past week has been threatening a disproportionate response to any US strike, has not confirmed any hits on its soil. Iran's state news agency Fars reported that "the sound of several explosions was heard on Qeshm" on Monday, without giving further details.

Tehran also claimed to have downed two US military drones flying over Hormuz on Monday. The US Central Command, which oversees Middle East-based US forces, has not commented on either the US strikes or the Iranian claims.

The war in the Middle East, and the corresponding spike in prices for fuel and fertilizer, has created a bruising political environment for Republicans heading into the midterm elections on Tuesday, where Democrats are widely expected to win control of at least one chamber of the US Congress.


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