BAKU, Azerbaijan, October 4. The Strait of Hormuz will remain closed until Iran’s seven conditions put forward under the Islamabad Memorandum of Understanding are accepted, Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf said today during a plenary session of parliament.
“Iran has stated its position fully transparently and unequivocally. The other side (the United States) must understand that the era of dictating unilateral demands is now over,” he said.
Ghalibaf said that Iran is neither alarmed nor afraid, but acts rationally. “When necessary, it fights, and when necessary, it engages in negotiations. It can participate in the battlefield with all its might and confront the other side with new surprises. At the same time, it uses diplomacy to demonstrate its strength on the battlefield and ensure that Iran’s rights are recognized,” he said.
The latest escalation in U.S.-Iran relations began on July 8. On
that day, the U.S. Armed Forces launched several waves of strikes
against Iranian territory, claiming they were in response to an
attack on a commercial vessel in the Strait of Hormuz, for the
first time since the signing of the memorandum between Washington
and Tehran. On the same day, U.S. President Donald Trump announced
that the ceasefire with Iran had been terminated. In response,
Tehran began launching strikes against U.S. facilities located in
Bahrain, Jordan, Qatar, Kuwait, the UAE and Oman. As a result of
the conflict, maritime trade through the Strait of Hormuz was
brought to a standstill.
