Iran Sets Blockade Removal as Its Price for Hormuz, as Iraqi Lawmakers Press for a US Withdrawal

The standoff over the Strait of Hormuz has become a dispute over which side must act first. Mohammad Bagher Zolghadr, then Iran's national security chief, set out conditions that include lifting the American naval blockade, withdrawing US forces, a permanent end to the war, compensation for damages and the release of frozen Iranian assets. Those remain Iran's stated terms, but Zolghadr no longer holds the post that made them official policy. Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei on Monday reshuffled Iran's top military and security leadership, naming Mohsen Rezaee, a former commander-in-chief of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), as the new secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council (SNSC). Zolghadr moved to a position as political adviser to the supreme leader, a post left vacant after his predecessor was killed in a US-Israeli strike in March. The same order installed Ali Abdollahi as armed forces chief of staff, Ahmad Vahidi as IRGC commander-in-chief and Ali Azmaei as commander of the IRGC Navy. Washington treats its naval presence as the guarantee of access to the strait. Tehran treats that same presence as the obstacle to reopening it. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi has said no direct talks are under way with the United States, and said an emerging agreement with Oman on managing shipping through the strait would not, by itself, be enough to reopen it unless Washington also meets Iran's broader conditions. The reshuffle came the same day President Trump added a demand of his own, that Iran pay compensation for what he called fifty years of damages, a condition that further dimmed prospects for a near-term agreement.

Iranian state media are making a parallel argument about American endurance. The Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) published a report describing the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln, sent to the region as a show of force, as now suffering psychological strain, operational fatigue and protests from crew families. That characterisation comes from Iranian state media and is unverified, but it highlights a real constraint on any blockade: carrier deployments cannot be extended indefinitely.

The pressure is also political and regional. An Iraqi member of parliament, quoted by IRNA, called the withdrawal of foreign forces, and American forces specifically, from Iraq a sovereign and national demand rather than a partisan one. Every basing arrangement that comes into question raises the cost of sustaining the American military position around the Gulf.

The security environment has tightened at the same time. Israeli and Hong Kong outlets, citing reporting by The Washington Post, described how the United States staged a decoy departure of Air Force One from Turkey last month, moving President Trump out through a catering vehicle to a smaller aircraft after intelligence indicated an Iranian threat against his plane. American officials have not publicly disputed the account.