Iran pulls out of MoU to 'take control' of entire Strait of Hormuz 'no matter what'

The country’s Deputy Minister for Legal and International Affairs Kazem Gharibabadi said Iran will exercise “full sovereignty over the Strait of Hormuz, no matter the costs,” The Hormuz Letter reports.

It is understood that Iran’s control over the strait will include Oman’s half of the critical waterway.

The Strait of Hormuz has been a point of contention in the conflict which sparked on February 28, when joint US-Israeli attacks were carried out on several key Iranian sites.

Iran retaliated by closing the critical Strait of Hormuz trade route, through which 20% of all global oil traded passes.

On June 17, the US and Iran signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to bring the war to a close within 60 days.

Washington and Tehran had been working towards securing a lasting peace agreement to bring the conflict to an end, restore international shipping through the vital Strait of Hormuz and seek to settle an ongoing dispute over Tehran’s nuclear programme.

US President Donald Trump declared the ceasefire to be “over” at a NATO summit in Türkiye last week, telling reporters: “I don’t want to deal with them anymore. They’re scum.”

Gharibabadi said that while Oman is normally one of two countries controlling the strait, “for national security reasons Iran must control all of the strait” during wartime, Tasnim news agency reports.

He added that the US not only violated the agreement, but completely dismantled it, especially with the naval blockade on Iranian ports.

He said that Iran “will never request negotiations with the United States.”

It is also being reported that Trump announced strikes on all of Iran’s power plants, bridges and energy sites, starting next week.

He said that the US will also strike Iran “hard tonight, tomorrow night, the night after.”