IRAN WAR: IRGC says Strait of Hormuz won't reopen unless U.S. agrees to demands
· Toronto Sun
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The war in the Middle East has hit another impasse on two fronts on Sunday, with Iranian leaders stating that the Strait of Hormuz would not reopen until the United States complied with a list of demands, while Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected U.S. President Donald Trump’s latest plan for Gaza.
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A day after Iran’s security chief Mohammad Bagher Zolghadr had laid out a list of conditions for reopening the crucial shipping waterway, Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said Sunday that the strait would remain closed “until the enemy accepts all our conditions,” AFP reported.
Also among the list of demands outlined by Zolghadr were the lifting of a U.S. counterblockade of Iranian ports, the end of sanctions, the release of frozen assets and compensation for damage from war, the Tasnim news agency reported.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Sunday there were no ongoing negotiations between Tehran and Washington, and said separate discussions with Oman over potential joint management of the waterway were “approaching the final stages,” but added that the reopening of the strait is subject to other factors, including compensation from the U.S. for its “violation” of the interim June agreement.
Here’s the latest on the Iran war on Sunday:
Trump says U.S. is ‘low-keying’ negotiations with Iran
Speaking to Axios on Sunday, Trump said the U.S. is “low-keying” negotiations with Iran and indicated that the U.S. will increase economic pressure on Tehran.
“We are low keying it,” Trump told the news site in a phone call.
“We are only semi-negotiating with them. We are just watching Iran with its huge inflation and the fact they have no money,” he said.
He also said Iran “is in very bad shape” economically and doesn’t have the money to pay its soldiers.
Regarding the state of affairs with Tehran, Trump said, “It will work out. It always works out. It’s like a chess game.”
Netanyahu rejects Trump’s Gaza plan
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rebuffed ally Trump’s 15-point plan for Gaza on Sunday.
In televised remarks, Netanyahu rejected Trump’s plan and said the Israeli military will not pull out of the disputed territory until Hamas is “genuinely” disarmed, Reuters reported.
Trump’s plan, which was announced on July 30, had called on Israeli forces to withdraw as Hamas disarmed, but both sides have disagreed over the sequence of the withdrawal and disarmament.
Though he rejected Trump’s plan, Netanyahu said Israel was still in talks with the U.S.
“They (the U.S.) have ideas, some of which are acceptable to us and some of which are unacceptable to us,” Netanyahu said.
Houthis claim attack on oil facility in Saudi Arabia
The Houthis, Iran’s ally in Yemen, said Sunday that they had struck a Saudi oil facility on the country’s Red Sea coast.
A medical source in the government-held port city of Mocha said three civilians and eight military personnel were killed and a further 32 people wounded, with all the civilian casualties resulting from Houthi strikes on the port city, AFP reported.
Earlier Sunday, the Gulf kingdom reported a fire at the Aramco oil facility and said the fire was extinguished.