Iran Says It’s Closing Parts of Hormuz Strait as US Talks Resume
(Bloomberg) — Parts of the Strait of Hormuz, one of the world’s most important oil-shipping lanes, will be closed for “several hours” on Tuesday as part of Iran’s military drills, state TV in the Islamic Republic reported.
The drills, announced previously, come as Iran and the US start a second round of negotiations in Geneva. Oil reversed losses on the news, with Brent trading 0.1% higher to $68.74 a barrel as of 11:22 a.m. in London.
“The main transit routes of the Strait of Hormuz are under the control of the IRGC Navy, and Iran has no red lines when it comes to safeguarding security in this region,” state TV said, refering to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
Shortly beforehand, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei stepped up his warnings that the US will suffer if it strikes the Middle Eastern country, as President Donald Trump has repeatedly threatened if the sides can’t reach a deal.
“They keep saying: ‘We sent a warship towards Iran,”’ Khamenei said. “Well, a warship is certainly a dangerous weapon, but more dangerous than a warship is the weapon that can sink this warship to the bottom of the sea.”
Iran and the US are meeting for a second round of nuclear talks in Switzerland as they seek to avert another conflict following June’s attacks on the Islamic Republic by Washington and Israel.
The talks in Geneva, mediated by Oman, started at around 10:30 a.m. local time, Iran’s state broadcaster said. The last round of talks, held in Oman on Feb. 6, lasted for about seven hours, with both sides describing them as “good.”
Iranian officials have expressed willingness to discuss their nuclear-enrichment activities, but have tied any concessions to the potential easing of American sanctions.
Meanwhile, both sides have increased their military presence in the region. The US is deploying a second aircraft carrier to the region amid warnings of a possible strike on Iran if talks — which could drag on for weeks — fail to produce a compromise. The IRGC began drills around the Strait of Hormuz on Monday that were focused on delivering a “decisive” response to security threats.
Oil markets are closely watching the talks for signs of disruption to supply from the Persian Gulf or potential sanctions relief for the Islamic Republic, whose crude is off limits for most buyers. Brent is up almost 13% this year, largely because of the US-Iran tensions and the prospect of a war in the oil-rich region.
The Revolutionary Guard is monitoring the strait continuously and plans to unveil additional equipment soon to boost its military capacities there, Navy commander Alireza Tangsiri said, according to the semi-official Mehr news agency.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi met the head of the United Nations’ atomic watchdog — the IAEA — in Geneva on Monday to discuss “proposals” he’ll present at his talks with US officials, it added.
Araghchi also met with his Omani counterpart Badr Albusaidi to present Iran’s latest position for him to convey to the US side, it said.
The US team is led by Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff and President Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner. Trump said on Monday that Iran wants to make a deal and that he’ll be indirectly involved in the discussions.
Israel is pushing for the negotiations to include limits on the range of Tehran’s ballistic missiles, but Iran has so far dismissed that as a red line.
During a visit to Tel Aviv on Monday, US Republican Senator Lindsey Graham said Washington was “weeks, not months” away from a decision between diplomacy and military action against Iran.
“We are negotiating with our finger on the trigger,” Jalal Dehqani Firouzabadi, the head of Iran’s Strategic Council on Foreign Relations, told the semi-official Iranian Students’ News Agency. “Iran is making every effort to prevent war, and diplomacy is part of that effort, but has no hesitation in defending itself.”
–With assistance from Eltaf Najafizada, Dan Williams and Carla Canivete.
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