US–Iran Talks Over the Strait of Hormuz Remain Deadlocked

US–Iran Talks Over the Strait of Hormuz Remain Deadlocked

Negotiations aimed at reopening the Strait of Hormuz and reaching a broader peace agreement between the United States and Iran are stalled, with both sides trading escalating demands rather than closing in on a deal.

Competing claims over control of the strait. President Trump has repeatedly claimed the US Navy has "100% control" of the strait. Iran disputes this, insisting the waterway — through which roughly a fifth of the world's oil and LNG shipments passed before the war — remains closed and will stay closed until Washington meets Iran's conditions. Iranian naval forces have restricted shipping through the nearby, narrower Strait of Bab-el-Mandeb-style chokepoints in the wider Gulf as well, though the core dispute is over Hormuz itself. Commercial traffic through the strait has reportedly fallen sharply.
Where the talks actually stand. Iran says it is not negotiating directly with the US at all — only with Oman, with which it is discussing a plan to jointly manage shipping lanes through the strait going forward. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi has said those Oman talks are in their "final stages," but stressed that reopening Hormuz is conditioned on separate demands being met by Washington. Pakistan has also been working to mediate and bring the US and Iran to the table.

Iran's six conditions, issued by Mohammad Bagher Zolghadr, secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, in mid-August, are:

Ending US threats and hostile rhetoric against Iran
Ending insults to Iran's national and religious values
A permanent end to attacks on Iran and its regional allies (Lebanon, Yemen, Iraq, Syria/Palestine)
Lifting the US naval blockade and withdrawing US naval and air forces from around Iran
Compensation for war damage
Lifting sanctions and unconditional release of frozen Iranian assets

Trump's counter-demand. In response, Trump said on August 10–11 that the US would seek compensation from Iran covering "50 years" of alleged damage, including deaths of US personnel (citing the 2000 USS Cole bombing, which was attributed to al-Qaeda, not Iran) and Iranian protesters killed by the government. He cited a figure of 52,000 protester deaths over recent months — a number not corroborated by independent monitors. For comparison: Iran's own government has said about 3,117 people died in the anti-government protests that swept the country in January, before the war began, while the US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency estimated around 7,000 deaths (including about 6,500 protesters) as of February. Trump's much larger figure appears to be his own unverified claim rather than a sourced count.
Background. The war began February 28, 2026, when the US and Israel struck Iranian nuclear, missile, and military targets, killing Iran's then–Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. Iran retaliated against US and Israeli targets and closed the Strait of Hormuz. A roughly six-week war led to an April