Tehran’s supreme security council insists US permanently end war with Iran and all its proxies, withdraw military from region, lift all sanctions, release all frozen assets, pay compensation Strait won’t open until US corrects behaviour Iran attacks a vessel in Strait of Hormuz, UAE says.
TEHRAN/DUBAI/WASHINGTON – Iran’s politburo-like body known as the Supreme National Security Council said Saturday that the Strait of Hormuz will not open until the United States “corrects its behaviour,” and issued drastic new demands that could shake up talks on a deal to manage the waterway and traffic on it.
Iran’s state broadcaster published the statement by the council’s secretary, Mohammad Bagher Zolghadr, who is also a commander in the powerful Revolutionary Guard.
The US must never threaten Iran again, the statement says, and must permanently end the war with Iran and its regional proxies, including Hezbollah, Hamas and the Houthis. The US must lift the naval blockade of Iranian ports and withdraw its military from the area.
The council is also demanding full compensation to Iran for all damage it sustained in the 2025 and 2026 wars, the lifting of all sanctions on Iran, and the unconditional release of all frozen Iranian assets.
The new list of demands reflects the demands Iran was previously making as a condition for a permanent accord with the US. That envisaged accord was intended by the US as also resolving the threat posed by Iran’s rogue nuclear program and its stockpile of 60pc-enriched uranium. Instead, these demands are now being issued as conditions for an accord under which Iran would merely consent to reopen the Strait of Hormuz.
Barak Ravid, Washington correspondent of Israel’s Channel 12, said these are demands that “clearly the US cannot accept,” and that they are potentially capable of pushing US President Donald Trump back toward the military option that he put aside only days ago.
In an interview with Fox News, US Vice President JD Vance said that Iran has told the US that it has “no plans” to impose tolls on the Strait of Hormuz.
Vance’s claim comes amid reporting that Iran has issued multiple new demands, with the Supreme National Security Council saying that the strait will not open until the United States “corrects its behaviour,” insisting that the US must never threaten Iran again, that the US must permanently end the war with Iran and its regional proxies including Hezbollah, Hamas and the Houthis, and that the US must lift the naval blockade of Iranian ports and withdraw its military from the area.
The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said earlier Saturday that the US will be “forced to accept Iran’s conditions” regarding the waterway, seemingly referring to its earlier insistence on requiring ships to pay fees for passage, which the US opposes.
Earlier, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Saturday that Iran and Oman were “very close” to reaching an accord on a new shipping route through the strategic waterway. He added that there would be conditions, including compensation for what Tehran claims were US violations of the Islamabad memorandum of understanding, the June agreement between the US and Iran to set terms for peace talks. But according to Vance, Iran has indicated to the US that it is looking for a deal and will not charge tolls on the strait.
“Some people within the Iranian system” have talked about tolling the waterway, he says, adding that “the Iranians have told us they have no plans to toll the Strait of Hormuz.”
A vessel owned by Abu Dhabi’s state-owned ADNOC oil and gas company was attacked while transiting the Strait of Hormuz, Emirati authorities said earlier Saturday. The Foreign Ministry said Iran fired the missile as part of attacks on commercial shipping.
ADNOC in a statement said there were no casualties following the attack early Saturday. The company said over a dozen of its vessels have been attacked by missiles and drones while transiting the strait since the U.S. and Israel launched the war on Iran in February. One crew member has been killed and 20 others wounded, it said. ADNOC didn’t elaborate on the attack’s location or any damage.
Later, the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations Center said a vessel east of the town of Khasab, Oman, had been struck by a projectile that caused a fire that was put out, with the vessel and crew safe. It was not clear whether this was the ADNOC incident.
Yemen’s military attacks Iran-backed Houthis
The attacks were in response to the Houthis’ recent strikes in central and eastern Yemen. Col. Majed al-Nazili, spokesperson for Yemen’s military, said the attacks targeted the rebels’ “sites and capabilities” on multiple front lines, without elaborating.
The escalation between the Houthis and Yemen’s internationally recognized government and its backer, a Saudi-supported coalition, threatens to reignite Yemen’s civil war following a 2022 truce.
