Some Iranian news outlets have criticised Araghchi’s post. Tasnim News Agency, affiliated with the IRGC, called it “bad and incomplete”, saying such passage would be considered “void” should the US naval blockade continue. Others called for the Iranian authorities to clarify the matter.
Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, who headed Iran’s delegation in the recent talks with the US in Islamabad, said on X that Donald Trump “made seven claims in one hour, all seven of which were false”.
On the Strait of Hormuz, he said that, with the “continuation of the [US] blockade”, the Strait “will not remain open”.
Iran is an ally of Hezbollah, a Shia Muslim political and military group based in southern Lebanon. Israel launched strikes on Lebanon on 2 March in response to those carried out by Hezbollah, which itself was retaliating against the US and Israel for its attacks on Iran.
Meanwhile, Trump said talks with Iran to end the war would continue over the course of the weekend, adding that he did not think there were too many significant differences between the two sides.
It comes after Iran’s foreign ministry said the country’s stockpile of enriched uranium would not be transferred “anywhere under any circumstances”, denying Trump’s claim on Friday that the regime had agreed to hand it over to the US.
Trump also told CBS News, the BBC’s US partner, that no ground troops would be needed to remove the enriched uranium, saying that the US and Iran would “work together to go get it”.
“And then we’ll take it to the United States,” he added.