The strategic Strait of Hormuz has been closed again during the standoff between Iran and the United States as the influential Iranian parliamentary speaker has indicated that a conclusive peace agreement is still “far” away even though talks have made some headway.
With mediators pressing on after high-level discussions in Pakistan last weekend failed to produce an accord, Tehran declared it would keep the vital maritime trade corridor closed until Washington lifts its blockade on Iranian ports.
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) warned that any attempt to pass through the strait without permission “will be considered cooperation with the enemy, and the offending vessel will be targeted”.
The current two-week ceasefire will expire on Wednesday unless it is extended.
Here is what we know:
In Iran
- US President Donald Trump has no justification to deprive Iran of its nuclear rights, the Iranian Students’ News Agency quoted Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian as saying on Sunday as Washington and Tehran continue to disagree on nuclear issues.
- Iran’s “valiant navy” is “ready to inflict new bitter defeats on its enemies”, Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei said in a series of X posts on Saturday.
- Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Saeed Khatibzadeh said a framework of understanding must be agreed with the US first before more talks are held, saying, “There was significant progress made actually,” but dismissed US “maximalist” demands on Iran’s nuclear programme.
- “There is now a certain sense of frustration and uncertainty when it comes to the road ahead,” Al Jazeera’s Tohid Asadi reported from Tehran. “We know that Iranians are very much worried, not only about the shadow of the war, but also about the element of surprise, even during this ceasefire.”
- Minister of Education Alireza Kazemi said Iran’s government does not have plans to resume in-person education at the moment.
- The Iranian Ministry of Science announced that 180 members of the academic community have been killed in the war, including 18 female students and one female university professor.
- The semiofficial Tasnim News Agency, quoting the deputy director of Iran’s Civil Aviation Organisation, said the country’s airspace would be reopened with flights from east to west established gradually.
- The aviation authority said Iran will resume international flights on Monday from Mashhad airport in the country’s northeast.
- Iran is replenishing its missile and drone launchers at a higher speed than before the war started, Majid Mousavi, the IRGC’s Aerospace Force commander, said.
- Iran’s armed forces turned back two tankers trying to transit the Strait of Hormuz after issuing warnings, Tasnim reported.
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