The strategic Strait of Hormuz will remain closed until a series of conditions set by Tehran are met, Iran says, as the country remains locked in a standoff with the United States months after the outbreak of war.
The conditions include an end to the conflict on all fronts, the release of frozen Iranian funds and an end to what Tehran describes as a naval blockade.
Iran also wants Washington to honour commitments made under a June agreement that was intended to halt military operations and pave the way for the reopening of the crucial waterway.
Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf said on Sunday that Tehran had communicated its demands to Washington through intermediaries and would not return to the position that existed before the earlier negotiations.
“As long as the conditions are not met... and the US commitments are not honoured, it will be impossible to return to the situation from before the negotiations and to an open strait,” Ghalibaf said, according to Iranian state television.
He said Iran’s position had been clearly conveyed to the other side.
“Our messages and the explanation of our conditions have been clearly conveyed to the other party through mediators,” he said.
Mohsen Rezaei, head of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, said on Saturday that Tehran had also communicated its demands through Qatar.
“Our conditions are an end to the war on all fronts, the release of our frozen funds and an end to the naval blockade,” he told Al Jazeera.
Iranian authorities said Pakistan’s Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi was due in Tehran on Sunday for talks as diplomatic efforts continued.
Ghalibaf said Iran would pursue both military and diplomatic means, arguing that military action would be used to push back its enemies while diplomacy would be used to consolidate gains when the time was considered appropriate.
“The enemy is well aware that the path of deception and unilateral imposition is closed,” he said.
The comments came as Iran’s Khatam al-Anbiya central military command issued a warning to the US.
It said any mistake by Washington would result in American bases and interests across the region becoming targets of attacks “without any limit or restraint”, in a statement carried by Iranian state television.
The conflict began after US and Israeli forces launched strikes on Iran on February 28. Tehran responded with attacks on countries in the region hosting US military assets.
Iran subsequently closed the Strait of Hormuz, one of the world's most important routes for oil and gas shipments.
Washington and Tehran reached an agreement in June that provided for a halt to military operations and arrangements to reopen the waterway.
The agreement later collapsed amid disagreements over navigation and security arrangements.
The continued closure has placed the strategic waterway at the centre of the wider confrontation, with Washington seeking to pressure Iran’s ports and economy while Tehran maintains that reopening the strait is conditional on its demands being met.