Iran underscores strategic importance of Hormuz Strait amid US negotiations

Tehran, Iran – As the United States awaits Iran's latest response to draft agreements exchanged via intermediaries, Iranian officials and state media are stressing that control of the Strait of Hormuz is more vital than ever.

Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei said Saturday that the country is still reviewing Washington's proposal. "We do our work, without paying attention to deadlines or timeframes," he said, alluding to timelines that U.S. President Donald Trump has set for Iran's response.

Iranian officials are signaling the strategic importance of the strait, which they are framing as comparable to the nuclear program that has led to sanctions and isolation for decades.

Mohamad Mokhber, a senior advisor to the late Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and former first vice president under President Ebrahim Raisi, said Iran's clerical and military establishment has "overlooked the blessing" of the strait for years. "In reality, this is a capability equivalent to a nuclear bomb, because when you have the ability to affect the entire global economy with a single decision, that is a huge capability," he told the Mehr news agency on Friday.

Mokhber affirmed that the government would not give up control "that we achieved through this war" and would push to "change the governance structure" of the strait through international channels or domestic legislation by the hardline-controlled parliament.

First Vice President Mohammad Reza Aref said Tehran's control of the strait would counter U.S. sanctions, including measures aimed at reducing oil sales that are being expanded weekly. "We will certainly no longer face so-called sanctions, because with the latest behavior of Trump and the enemy, our rights and views on the strait have been strengthened," he said Thursday.

'Not usable for us, not usable for all'

Iranian state television has drawn comparisons to the Battle of Uhud 1,400 years ago, when archers abandoned a strategic position despite the Prophet Muhammad's orders, allowing enemy cavalry to attack from behind. Hossein Hosseini, host of the Ofogh channel, told viewers Saturday that the Strait of Hormuz is "Iran's Uhud pass. Intelligent Iranians will be careful not to give up this Uhud pass, not to return it. The strait's conditions will never return to what they were; the enemy must certainly know this."

Multiple messages attributed to Mojtaba Khamenei, since he succeeded his father as Supreme Leader shortly after war began, also emphasize the need to retain control of the waterway.

State media aired a clip from a decades-old speech by late President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani. "We have always stressed that we would close the Strait of Hormuz when the Persian Gulf is not usable for us. If the Persian Gulf is not usable for us, we will make the Persian Gulf not usable for others," he said in the undated address.

The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and U.S. warships have exchanged fire over transit through the strait in recent days, as Washington continues to enforce a naval blockade of Iran's ports.

Internal focus on US negotiations

Various aspects of the mediated talks with the United States are under daily discussion among Iranian authorities, who believe they have gained the upper hand after fighting. Hardliners, emboldened by the war, strongly oppose major concessions on the nuclear program, missile arsenal, or other key issues.

Ali Khezrian, Tehran's representative in parliament's national security committee, told state media Friday that Iran "has not engaged in any nuclear negotiations." He claimed the Trump administration is pushing a "lie" about a potential deal to "compensate for battlefield failures."

Pro-establishment foreign policy analyst Mahdi Kharratiyan said it would be "a dream and an illusion" to think a deal with Washington could lift all sanctions, so Tehran should turn more toward China.

Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi visited China for high-level meetings last week, but the top diplomat has also faced internal criticism for his role in promoting talks with the U.S. Hardline lawmakers such as Mahmoud Nabavian, who was part of the negotiating team that held talks with the U.S. in Pakistan in April, have called for Araghchi's removal from the process led by chief negotiator Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf. "Mr. Ghalibaf is obliged to completely remove the people of the expensive JCPOA deal from the team," Nabavian wrote on X.