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Iran sets conditions for reopening Hormuz

August 18, 2026

Iran's parliament speaker says the Strait of Hormuz stays shut until Washington meets Tehran's demands, and Trump says no talks with Iran are under way.

AP News reports Trump saying Tuesday that no talks with Iran are under way or on the calendar, a message he posted on Truth Social beside a map of the Strait of Hormuz marked as new US territory. CBS News carries the president's words: "There are no talks or conversations going on, or scheduled, with the Islamic Republic of Iran." CNBC carries the rest of that post, in which the president says the naval blockade stays in force, the waterway is open, and the mines are cleared. CNN reports Trump threatening on Monday to bomb Oman, apparently because Oman has been negotiating with Iran over reviving shipping through the strait, and reports the June framework between Washington and Tehran, already collapsed in practice, expiring on Monday with no breakthrough.

CBS News reports Iran's parliament speaker, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, saying the country will not lift its de facto blockade of commercial shipping through the strait until the United States meets its demands, and CNN carries the same position. CBC sets out the terms: lifting the blockade, releasing frozen assets, lifting oil sanctions, and ending threats and military operations before the strait reopens. CBC also reports the June memorandum called for the strait to be reopened while leaving Iran a loosely defined role in facilitating traffic, a clause Tehran has used to claim control of a passage that carried about a fifth of the world's oil and liquefied natural gas before the war. Reuters carries the same standoff, with no talks on the calendar and Tehran holding the waterway closed.

CBC and CNBC report six commodity ships crossing the strait on Monday, against a 10-day average of 11. AP News reports Kpler data on the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, where crossings rose 6.7% to 254 transits and dark transits, ships sailing with their transponders switched off, fell from 40 to 16. CNN reports the yield on the 30-year US Treasury bond reaching 5.33% on Tuesday, its highest in nearly two decades, as traders price in a long war and costly energy. CBS News reports Qatar, a mediator in the stalled talks, saying an Iran-Oman agreement on future control of the strait would make resuming negotiations easier, and AP News reports Egypt's Foreign Ministry casting the Iranian-Omani deal as a path back to the table. What the record does not settle is the state of the waterway: one account carries the assertion that the passage is open and its mines cleared, and another sets thinned traffic against it, with US Central Command referring questions about demining to the White House. The statements, Iran's terms, and the expiry of the framework hold across the accounts; the condition of the strait does not.

Still developing

The state of the Strait of Hormuz is the open question: transit levels, the fate of the mines, and whether an Iran-Oman arrangement on new shipping routes wins US acceptance are all unresolved across the accounts. The Egyptian and Qatari statements point toward renewed negotiations, with no date for talks anywhere in the record.

How settled the reporting is

Reported 87% · Contested 3% · Developing 10%

Sources