🔻Iran’s conditions dim hopes of a soon deal

🖌Sebastian Usher, BBC international affairs correspondent

The conditions that Mohammad Bagher Zolqadr has put forward are, in essence, a repetition of the same conditions that were included in the framework agreement reached in June between Iran and the United States. But now Iran’s Secretary of the Supreme National Security Council has presented them as preconditions for the full return of the Strait of Hormuz to normal conditions.

These conditions include reducing sanctions, paying war reparations, and an immediate end to the U.S. blockade of Iranian ports. If we take these remarks as our basis, they further reduce the hopes that Donald Trump had once again raised about reaching a deal with Iran in the near term.

Meanwhile, Iran and Oman are still negotiating over the creation of a new route for ships to pass through the Strait; a route that the two countries will jointly be responsible for and from which they will charge fees for the passage of ships.

Such an agreement, if finalized, would open only part of the path toward a broader solution to this dispute, but it may be enough to provide a way for Donald Trump to exit the war.