The Strait of Hormuz is Iran’s best leverage to get Washington to release Iran’s frozen assets, lift economic sanctions and end its naval blockade.
Steven Erlanger, based in Berlin, has written about Iran and the Middle East since the Iranian Revolution.
Iran’s demands for reopening the Strait of Hormuz, as laid out in a statement on Saturday, are largely what President Trump had already agreed to do in the memorandum of understanding he signed on June 17. But Iran sees control over the strait as its best chance of getting Mr. Trump to deliver on those promises — and is not willing to give it up just yet.
For Iran, analysts suggest, denying Mr. Trump the ability to claim victory over the strait is the most efficient lever to persuade him to recommit to those agreements and to implement them. Keeping the strait largely closed keeps energy prices high and is also a way to ensure that Persian Gulf states, which depend on the strait for exports, will also encourage Washington to return to the memorandum.
The level of mistrust between Iran and the United States is so high that Tehran wants to ensure it gets the economic relief it has been promised, to enable reconstruction, before it gives up even partial control over the strait, said Esfandyar Batmanghelidj, founder of the Bourse & Bazaar Foundation, a think tank focused on economic diplomacy.
“Iranian officials are concerned that if the strait opens, Trump would walk away from this conflict without feeling the need to resolve it,” he said. “They want to use the strait as a commitment mechanism to ensure Trump implements the various provisions of the MOU.”
