Iran says deal ‘close’ to reopen Strait of Hormuz as Trump says he prefers ‘not to kill’
WASHINGTON (TNND) — Iran says it is working on the final stage of a draft agreement with Oman to reopen the Strait of Hormuz as the United States’ blockade remains in effect and negotiations continue.
Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson, Esmail Baghaei, said Wednesday that a joint statement will be issued if “certain parties do not obstruct the process,” seemingly referencing the U.S.
The agreement is expected to be contingent on the U.S. lifting its blockade on Iran’s ports, which was reinstated after a June ceasefire deal faltered, leading to renewed attacks between the U.S. and Iran.
Earlier this week, President Donald Trump said “a lot of progress has been made” on a deal.
In remarks in Las Vegas Wednesday night, Trump said he would prefer a deal and doesn’t want to “kill people.”
I’d rather make a deal because I don’t want to kill people. I do not want to kill people, but at some point we’re going to. We were set for the biggest attack of any attack, and we’ve hit them very hard for the last few months, but we were, we were all set for the biggest attack since World War II, and they called me and they said, please don’t do it. Let’s talk.”
The president also criticized Iran for claiming there were no talks with the U.S.
And then they don’t, they said we never said that. You know what, the fake news knows they did say that, but we are talking. Let’s see what happens, but they respect us. They respect us,” Trump said.
The Trump administration has previously ruled out deals giving Iran control of the shipping route, which is already an open international waterway.
“I’m not going to let them charge. Anybody’s going to charge, we’ll charge,” Trump said Monday.
The president threatened massive strikes on Iran last week, calling them off on Saturday in the hopes of renewed conversation.
The critical shipping route is crucial to energy supplies and the global economy, with around a fifth of the world’s oil and natural gas going through the Strait.
In the last week, at least two Greek-controlled ships were hit in the Strait, with others reporting near misses or warnings from groups claiming to represent Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard, Lloyd’s List Intelligence, a maritime data company, told The Associated Press. The company also said the Iranian-backed Houthis are continuing to claim attacks on ships in the Red Sea.
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The Associated Press contributed to this report.