– Iran has refuted President Donald Trump’s claim that Washington has “total control” of the Strait of Hormuz, saying the critical waterway will remain closed until the United States accepts its demands and changes its “behaviour”.

According to the semi-official Tasnim news agency, Mohsen Rezaie, the newly appointed head of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, told China’s ambassador to Tehran, Cong Peiwu: “As long as America does not change its behaviour and does not accept Iran’s conditions, the Strait of Hormuz will not be opened.”
The Strait of Hormuz, through which one-fifth of global oil and natural gas is shipped during peacetime, has emerged as a key flashpoint in the US-Israel war on Iran, with peace talks stalled until the question of its management is resolved. Iran closed the strait shortly after US-Israeli bombing of Iran began at the end of February.It currently says it is only talking to Oman, whose territorial waters the strait also passes through, about the future management of the waterway.Trump and other US officials have denied this.

Meanwhile, on Tuesday, an Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) adviser said it was developing the capability to conduct operations on “enemy soil”. Until now, Iran has been limited to carrying out strikes on US military assets and energy infrastructure in neighbouring Gulf countries and Jordan.

“We need to be able to move the operations to the enemy’s soil, whenever this is needed and ordered,” he said, according to Iranian state TV.Last week, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said negotiations with Oman for future management of the Strait of Hormuz, with new shipping lanes, have made progress and are in their “final stages”.Iran says it is not talking directly to the US about this – only Oman, with which it proposes sharing management of the strait.On Tuesday, Qatar’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Majed al-Ansari said he had heard positive messages from both Tehran and Muscat regarding the reopening of Hormuz.