Galibaf: Hormuz Strait Stays Closed Until US Complies

Iranian parliament speaker Mohamad Bager Galibaf said on September 20 that the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow chokepoint through which a large share of the world’s seaborne oil trade passes, will not reopen until the United States meets the conditions Tehran has already communicated to it. For Serbia, whose fuel market tracks prices set on global oil exchanges, any fresh blockage at this chokepoint carries a potential knock on effect for pump prices at home, even though no shipment to European refineries has so far been directly cut off.

Speaking to lawmakers, Galibaf said there is no going back to the earlier terms of negotiation. The TASS news agency quoted him as saying:

“Iran will not return to the previous conditions for negotiations or reopen the Strait of Hormuz until these conditions are met, the Iranian people’s legitimate rights are recognized and the US fulfills its commitments.”

The Turkish agency anews carried essentially the same message that same day, though with a different word order, which makes it worth citing as well:

“until these conditions are met, the legitimate rights of the Iranian nation are recognised, and American commitments are fulfilled, there will be no opening”

The difference between the two versions is not in substance. TASS stresses that Iran will not shift its position until the conditions are met, while anews frames the same point around the idea that “there will be no opening.” Either way, the message both carry is the same: Tehran is not backing down from the conditions it has already set.

What conditions does Washington face?

The conditions were laid out ahead of Galibaf’s address by Mohsen Rezai, secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council. According to the Jerusalem Post, Iran’s demands are three, spelled out without ambiguity:

“ending the war on all fronts, unfreezing Iranian funds, and ending the US naval blockade”

Rezai added that these conditions have already been formally passed to Washington through Qatari mediators, and that Tehran is now waiting for a response from President Donald Trump. He said Iran plans to soon declare a no go zone beyond the strait itself, and that any vessel attempting to pass through it without permission will end up on Iran’s sanctions list. In practice, that extends the pressure from the chokepoint itself to the wider band of water around it.

Iran further ties the reopening of the strait to concrete steps by the US under the peace memorandum the two sides signed in June 2026. That deal called for an end to military operations and for the shipping lane to reopen, but it collapsed once Tehran and Washington failed to agree on the specifics of navigation and security arrangements inside the strait itself. In other words, the June document existed but was never fully carried out, and it is precisely that follow through Iran is now demanding as a condition.

From the February strikes to a closed strait

Iran closed the Strait of Hormuz in response to the strikes the United States and Israel launched on February 28, 2026, in operations codenamed Roaring Lion and Epic Fury. A ceasefire between Washington and Tehran took effect on April 8, 2026, after just over a month of fighting. The cost of that war, according to the US Central Command (CENTCOM), was 18 American service members killed. Israel’s toll was heavier: 39 soldiers killed, 23 civilians killed and at least 7,693 wounded.

All of that sits behind every fresh statement out of Tehran or Washington, since the June peace memorandum was supposed to close that chapter. Instead, the Strait of Hormuz remains closed, five months after the ceasefire.

Srpske Novine previously reported on how Russia and China used their veto in the UN Security Council to shut down the international mechanism for monitoring sanctions on Iran, a sign that the fight over Iran’s file is not playing out only bilaterally between Tehran and Washington, but on a wider diplomatic front as well. A closed strait and a defunct sanctions monitoring mechanism are moving in parallel, and both make any quick agreement harder to reach.

For now there is no announced deadline for Trump to respond to the conditions passed through Qatar, nor a date for when Iran might declare the no go zone it has flagged around the strait. Until that response comes, the Strait of Hormuz remains closed, and any vessel that tries to pass through it faces the sanctions Tehran has already threatened.