US President Donald Trump has said Washington is maintaining limited contact with Iran, describing the engagement as “low key” amid continuing tensions between the two countries.
“We are low keying it,” Trump said during a brief phone call, adding that the two sides were only “semi-negotiating” while Washington monitored Iran’s worsening economic situation.
Meanwhile, Iran said on Sunday that an agreement with Oman on establishing new shipping lanes through the Strait of Hormuz was nearing completion, but warned that the strategic waterway would remain closed until the United States met a number of conditions.
Iran has effectively blocked the crucial energy route since the US and Israel launched attacks against the country in late February. Tehran has also sought to impose tolls on vessels using the waterway and has targeted ships it accuses of attempting to bypass its preferred route.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said the agreement with Oman was in its “final stages”. He said the deal would establish new shipping lanes that could be used once the US met Iran’s conditions and the strait was reopened.
Araghchi also denied that Tehran was engaged in direct negotiations with Washington, saying the two sides were only exchanging messages through intermediaries.
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) separately warned that the Strait of Hormuz would not be reopened until the United States accepted Tehran’s demands, including compensation for damage caused by the conflict.
Iranian security chief Mohammad Bagher Zolghadr had outlined the conditions on Saturday, calling for an end to what he described as the war and aggression against Iran and its allies in Lebanon, Palestine, Yemen and Iraq.
The demands also include lifting the US counter-blockade of Iranian ports, removing sanctions, releasing frozen Iranian assets and providing compensation for wartime damage.
The IRGC said the closure would remain in place until the United States accepted all of Iran’s conditions, describing the strait as a “theatre of war” rather than merely a waterway.
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian has met Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, according to a statement from the supreme leader’s office.
The office said Pezeshkian met Khamenei at the beginning of the third year of his presidency and discussed the country’s internal challenges, the current military situation and future developments.
The statement did not specify when the meeting took place.
Khamenei has appointed former Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps commander Mohsen Rezaee as his representative to the Supreme National Security Council, Iran’s top security body.
Rezaee replaces Mohammad Bagher Zolghadr, another former IRGC commander who assumed leadership of the council in March.
Zolghadr will now serve as a political adviser to Khamenei, according to the supreme leader’s office.
