ERBIL () - Iran's Foreign Ministry issued a series of statements on Friday clarifying that its agreement with Oman on transit corridors in the Strait of Hormuz does not necessarily mean security for shipping in the waterway, and that the return of security to Hormuz is conditional on the United States stopping its destabilizing actions and ending its naval blockade of Iran.
"Our agreement with Oman on transit corridors in the Strait of Hormuz does not necessarily mean security for shipping in the strait,"the Foreign Ministry said in a statement, drawing a sharp and deliberate distinction between the technical navigation framework agreed with Muscat and the broader political and military conditions Tehran requires before it will declare the waterway safe.
The ministry was equally direct on the conditions for full Hormuz security. "As long as the US blockade and economic war continue, it cannot be claimed that the Strait of Hormuz is safe,"it said, adding that "the return of security to the Strait of Hormuz is conditional on the cessation of America's destabilizing actions and the end of its naval blockade."
The Foreign Ministry also confirmed that Iran will present the results of its negotiations with Oman on Hormuz transit routes at Monday's meeting of Gulf coastal states in Oman, where Iran, Iraq, and other coastal nations will gather to discuss a safe shipping corridor through the strait. The announcement transforms Monday's Oman meeting from a bilateral Iran-Oman showcase into a multilateral forum at which Tehran will formally table the technical outcomes of its corridor negotiations for the first time before the full group of coastal states.
On the nuclear file, Iran's Foreign Ministry rejected international criticism of its nuclear program, asserting that Iran's nuclear activities are entirely peaceful. "Our nuclear program is peaceful and incorrect IAEA reports were used to justify aggression against our country,"the ministry said, framing the US and European push to refer Iran to the UN Security Council for nuclear non-compliance, which was under consideration at the IAEA Board of Governors meeting in Vienna this week, as a political instrument designed to provide legal cover for further military action rather than a legitimate non-proliferation enforcement mechanism.
The combination of Friday's Iranian Foreign Ministry statements produces a picture of Tehran's strategic posture at the conflict's most intense moment with unusual clarity. On Hormuz, Iran is simultaneously advancing a technical corridor arrangement with Oman, agreeing to present that arrangement to the broader Gulf coastal states on Monday, and insisting that neither the corridor nor the Monday meeting constitutes a commitment to full strait security as long as the US blockade continues. On the nuclear file, Iran is simultaneously facing a potential UN Security Council referral and characterizing the IAEA reports underpinning that referral as politically fabricated pretexts for aggression.
The statement that the Iran-Oman agreement does not necessarily mean Hormuz security is the most consequential single line of Friday's declarations. It directly contradicts the optimistic framing that Omani Foreign Minister Badr Albusaidi and other regional actors have placed on the Iran-Oman corridor negotiations, and signals that Tehran intends to retain the threat of Hormuz disruption as a coercive instrument even as it participates in a multilateral maritime governance discussion on Monday.
