Iran’s speaker says there is still a long way to go until a final agreement is reached.
Iran’s parliamentary speaker said on Saturday night that negotiations with the United States to end the conflict had made progress, but that the two sides were still a long way from reaching an agreement.In a speech on national television, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, who is also one of Iran’s negotiators, stated, “We are still far from the final discussion.” He also said, “We made progress in the negotiations, but there are still many gaps and some important points that need to be made.”
He noted that the US and Iran still have a long way to go before they can agree.
Ghalibaf added, “We have come to some conclusions in the negotiations, but not all of them. We are still a long way from a final agreement.”
Iran said it would close the Strait of Hormuz again on Saturday because the US was keeping a naval blockade on Iranian ports and breaking confidence over and over.
Before then, Iran wanted ships to pay a fee to safely pass the strait.
A high-ranking Iranian official told the press that ships who pay the price would be given priority over those that don’t.
The decision made talks with the US more difficult, but Ghalibaf said that the situation in the Strait of Hormuz was a strategic success for Tehran.
“We haven’t destroyed the enemy; they still have money and weapons. But strategically, they have lost to us,” he stated.
US GETTING READY TO TAKE IRANIAN SHIPS
The US is getting ready to board and take control of Iranian-linked ships to put pressure on Tehran and force the Strait of Hormuz to reopen.
The Wall Street Journal says that the US military has made plans to stop tankers and commercial ships in international waterways, which means that its crackdown will go beyond the Middle East.
Donald Trump seems to be tightening his economic grip on the Iranian government while the US blocks Iranian ports.
After the Islamic Republic blocked the strait on Saturday morning, tensions between the US and Iran have been building. The strait had only been reopened the day before. It also shot at at least two container ships.
IRAN BLASTS EU “HYPOCRISY” ON STRAIT OF HORMUZ
A commander in the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps said that if the US attacked Iranian ships, it would get a “hard blow.”
Esmail Baghaei, a spokesman for Iran’s foreign ministry, has criticised the European Union for being “peak hypocritical” and not following through on what it says.
The spokesperson shared an X post from Kaja Kallas, the EU’s foreign policy leader, saying that international law says that waterways like the Strait of Hormuz must be accessible and free of charge.
“Oh, that ‘international law’?” He writes on X, “The one that the EU uses to tell other countries what to do while secretly allowing a US-Israeli war of aggression and ignoring crimes against Iranians?”
“Stop preaching; Europe’s constant failure to follow its own rules has made its talk of ‘international law’ the height of hypocrisy.”
Baghaei said that there is no rule in international law that stops Iran from taking steps to stop a hostile country from using the Strait of Hormuz for military objectives.
“And what about “unconditional transit passage” in Hormuz? “That fiction sailed the moment US-Israeli aggression brought US military assets into the strait’s backyard,” he says.