Iran says Hormuz deal 'very close' as Washington looks for an off-ramp

US Vice President JD Vance said Iran had told Washington it had no plans to impose tolls in the Strait of Hormuz, in an interview aired by Fox News Saturday.

Vance said the United States expected oil and gas flows from the Persian Gulf to return to pre-conflict levels and would judge Tehran by its actions rather than its assurances.

“Our expectation is you’re going to see the same amount of oil and gas come out of the Gulf that you saw before the conflict started. That is what the Iranians have told us that they are going to do,” Vance said.

He said Iran and Persian Gulf states, particularly Oman, had been discussing how to ensure safe passage through the strait, including demining and a commitment from Tehran not to fire on commercial vessels.

Vance said the United States was still “in the middle of the game” with Iran and was using diplomatic, economic and military tools to secure what he called the best outcome for the American people.

“We don’t trust, we verify,” Vance said.

Oman said ongoing negotiations over shipping arrangements in the Strait of Hormuz were proceeding in a “positive and constructive” atmosphere, Saturday.

In a Foreign Ministry statement, Muscat also condemned repeated attacks on vessels transiting the strait and urged all sides to avoid actions that could undermine the talks and progress made so far.

Bahrain on Saturday condemned a missile attack on an ADNOC tanker in the Strait of Hormuz, calling it a threat to maritime navigation and global energy supplies.

In a statement, the Foreign Ministry urged the UN Security Council to protect shipping and called on the international community to press Iran to reopen the strait and halt attacks on commercial vessels.

In his first comments since reports of his resignation, Iran's security chief Mohammad-Bagher Zolghadr said the Strait of Hormuz would not reopen until the United States “corrects its behavior,” Iranian media reported Saturday.

Zolghadr, who is the secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, said “correcting” US behavior meant meeting a series of Iranian demands, including ending threats and military action against Iran and its allies and lifting the naval blockade.

“Correcting its behavior means that Iran must never again be threatened or humiliated, aggression against Iran and its allies must end permanently, the naval blockade must be lifted, US naval and air forces must withdraw from around Iran, war damages must be compensated, sanctions must be lifted and Iran’s frozen assets must be released,” Zolghadr said in a written message.

He said the demands also included the withdrawal of US naval and air forces from around Iran, compensation for damage from the wars, the removal of sanctions and the release of frozen Iranian assets.

“The Supreme National Security Council will never back down, whether in war or in negotiations,” he said.

A vessel was struck by an unidentified projectile 18 nautical miles east of Khasab, Oman, on Saturday, causing a fire that was later extinguished, the UK Maritime Trade Operations said.

UKMTO said the vessel and crew were safe and no environmental impact had been reported.

At least 56 tankers are operating without normal digital tracking to support oil exports from Arab states neighboring Iran, TankerTrackers said on Saturday.

The vessel-tracking service said the tankers were transiting the Strait of Hormuz and conducting covert ship-to-ship transfers in the Gulf of Oman, allowing oil exports to continue despite disruptions to shipping through the waterway.

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said on Saturday that decisions on whether Iran should continue fighting were for the country's military commanders and ultimately the supreme leader, rather than his government.

“Whether we should fight or not, the commanders of the war know better than you and me. They know their own capabilities,” Pezeshkian told a news conference. “The leadership decides, and whatever decision he makes, we will stand by it to the end.”

Pezeshkian said decisions on war were not the government's responsibility under Iran's legal structure, describing the executive's role as providing logistical support.

“The war is not up to the government,” he said. “The government is there to provide the necessary support.”

Saudi Arabia strongly condemned an Iranian attack targeting a UAE vessel as it transited the Strait of Hormuz, calling it an assault on freedom and safety of navigation and global energy supplies.

The Saudi Foreign Ministry said Iran's continued attacks constituted a “grave violation” of international law and UN Security Council Resolution 2817.

Riyadh held Iran responsible for the consequences of continuing the attacks and called for their immediate cessation, while reaffirming its “full solidarity” with the United Arab Emirates and support for measures taken to protect its sovereignty and capabilities.

Iran’s oil exports appear to have ground to a halt under the renewed US naval blockade, with no tankers loading at Kharg Island, the country’s main crude export terminal, for at least a week, the Financial Times reported.

Kharg, which handles roughly 90% of Iran’s crude exports, has been idle since July 31, according to shipping and satellite data cited by the FT. Maritime intelligence company Windward said all three loading berths had remained empty for a sustained period.

“The blockade is effective, in the sense that there is not a lot of tanker movement in or out,” Richard Bronze of Energy Aspects told the FT.

The interruption is among the longest since the war began and may already be forcing Iran to reduce oil production to prevent its storage facilities from filling, the report said.

Tehran is still receiving revenue from cargoes that left during the ceasefire and are reaching buyers in Asia, but that flow of income could dry up in the coming weeks.

The pressure comes as Iran and Oman negotiate arrangements for shipping through the Strait of Hormuz. A person briefed on the talks told the FT that an acceptable agreement could lead Washington to lift its blockade and restore a sanctions waiver allowing buyers to purchase Iranian crude.

Iran and Oman are close to an agreement on a new shipping route through the Strait of Hormuz, but reopening the waterway depends on separate conditions, including the United States addressing what Tehran considers violations of the Islamabad memorandum, Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said on Saturday on the sidelines of President Masoud Pezeshkian’s news conference.

“We are very close to an agreement,” Araghchi said, adding that Tehran no longer accepts the previous Traffic Separation Scheme, or TSS, used by vessels transiting the strait.

He said Iran and Oman were discussing a temporary route because establishing a permanent new route involved extensive technical and legal complexities.

“The reopening of the Strait of Hormuz is subject to other conditions, including the US compensating for violations of the Islamabad memorandum,” Araghchi said.