Iran’s parliament speaker said the Strait of Hormuz won’t reopen until conditions are met. Trump warned Tehran faces an “easy way or hard way.”
Iran’s parliament speaker, Mohammad Baqer Ghalibaf, said Sunday that the Strait of Hormuz will not reopen until conditions set out in a June interim agreement with the United States are met, days after Tehran received Washington’s formal response to its latest proposal, according to Iran’s semi-official Nournews agency. The statement came as President Donald Trump said he would soon make a decision on how to proceed with Iran, warning Tehran faces an “easy way or hard way.”
“We have a decision that I’ll make about Iran. Iran’s been decimated,” Trump told reporters outside the White House. “So the only question is, it’ll either be the easy way or the hard way.” Trump’s comments followed reports that his top national security aides met secretly at Camp David to discuss Iran and Yemen. Iran has accused the U.S. of dragging out negotiations and dictating one-sided demands since Washington delivered its response to Tehran’s proposal for reopening the strategic waterway, through which roughly 20% of global oil and gas transits.
The exchange came amid a broader escalation across the region. Yemen’s internationally recognized government forces claimed 97 “precision” strikes against Houthi positions, while the Iran-aligned Houthis claimed a major attack on a Saudi oil refinery, with witnesses reporting a large plume of smoke and fire near an Aramco installation in Riyadh. The claims could not be independently verified. The developments add to months of unresolved tension over the strait, which has remained largely closed to shipping since the war between the U.S., Israel and Iran began in February, disrupting a significant share of global energy trade.
This report is based on information from Nournews (via Inkl) and the Associated Press (via Yahoo News).