Strait of Hormuz: Iran Lists Demands, US General Seeks Exit
Iran has published a list of demands Washington must meet before the Strait of Hormuz reopens, while the chairman of the US Joint Chiefs privately tells officials America needs a way out of the war.
The Strait of Hormuz will stay closed until Washington meets a list of demands that Iran’s Supreme National Security Council secretary Mohammad Bagher Zolgadr published on Saturday, a list that runs from lifting the naval blockade of Iranian ports to full compensation for war damage. For Serbia this is not a distant story out of the Gulf: before the war, a fifth of the world’s oil and liquefied gas passed through that shipping lane, so every month the strait stays closed keeps the price of a barrel at a level that also sets the price of the fuel Serbia’s domestic market buys.
What Tehran Is Demanding
Zolgadr’s list is the first time Iran has gathered into one document what the Revolutionary Guard had spent months mentioning only in general terms. The demands are:
- a permanent end to the war against Iran and its regional allies
- a commitment that the United States will never threaten Iran again
- lifting the naval blockade of Iranian ports and withdrawing US forces from the region
- full compensation for war damage, lifting of sanctions, and unconditional release of frozen Iranian assets
- an end to strikes in Lebanon, Palestine, Yemen and Iraq
When we wrote about the framework agreement between Iran and Oman, the Guard was demanding “terms” without naming a single specific item. Now the items are written down and signed with the Council secretary’s name, which moves them out of a bargaining posture and into Tehran’s official position.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi confirmed that Tehran and Muscat are very close to an agreement on a new shipping route through the strait, but he kept that route separate from reopening it: “this is not a sign that the Strait of Hormuz is reopening,” he told reporters. Revolutionary Guard spokesman Hossein Mohebi was more blunt in a statement from the Guard:
Opening the Strait of Hormuz has its own mechanism and has nothing to do with the talks between Iran and Oman.
That puts two separate tracks on the table. The technical one, about the route, runs through diplomacy in Muscat. The political one, about reopening itself, sits with the National Security Council in Tehran.
The Blockade by the Numbers
The US Navy turned away 53 ships attempting to enter or leave Iranian ports on August 8. CENTCOM, at the same time, let through more than 30 ships carrying humanitarian cargo, the only channel the blockade leaves open.
The cost of that blockade is being felt on the Gulf side too. Since the war began, 15 ships belonging to the Emirati company ADNOC have come under attack, three of them this week alone.
Why the Top US General Wants a Way Out
Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman General Dan Caine has told officials privately, according to CNN sources, that Washington needs a way out of the war because air power alone cannot deliver the goals President Donald Trump has set. He discussed this with Vice President JD Vance, CIA Director John Ratcliffe and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and met with Trump himself on August 3.
The White House had not issued an official response to Iran’s list by Saturday noon, Eastern time. That silence is itself telling: a demand for war reparations and a troop withdrawal from the region is not something a US administration can answer quickly, and every day without a response prolongs the blockade.
What Is It Costing Consumers?
The average price of gasoline in the United States is $4.02, up from $3.16 a year ago. A roughly 27 percent increase on the world’s largest fuel market does not stay within US borders: oil and refined products are priced globally, so the disruption at Hormuz feeds into the import bills of every country that buys fuel at international prices, Serbia included.
The war began on February 28, 2026, with joint US-Israeli strikes. A temporary ceasefire was signed in June, then collapsed over exactly the two questions now resurfacing: who controls the strait, and whether passage through it is taxed.
Araghchi says talks with Oman are nearly done. Zolgadr’s list carries neither a date nor a counterpart in Washington ready to sign off on it.
