Iran’s top security official, Mohsen Rezaei, has said no negotiations are taking place between Tehran and Washington, rejecting American claims of ongoing diplomacy and saying the Strait of Hormuz will stay closed until Iran’s seven conditions are met.

Rezaei, who is secretary of the Supreme National Security Council, made the remarks in an interview with the Lebanese channel Al Mayadeen on Tuesday.

He said every American claim that talks with Iran are continuing is meant to ease economic pressure on the United States and bring down oil prices. He repeated that the strategic waterway would not reopen until Tehran’s demands are satisfied.

The statement came a day after President Donald Trump declared the war “effectively over” following talks at the White House with Qatar’s prime minister, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, a key mediator between the two sides.

Trump said he would hold off on fresh strikes for now but would keep the naval blockade in place. On Tuesday, Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters in Paris that sanctions and the blockade were hurting Iran so badly that major combat operations were unnecessary, while insisting that Washington remained open to a deal.

Tehran’s position has barely moved. Its conditions, first passed to Washington through Qatari mediators, include an end to the US naval blockade, the lifting of sanctions, the release of frozen Iranian funds and a halt to hostilities on all fronts.

Rezaei has said Iran will not take part in any diplomatic process until all seven are met in full, and earlier this month he told Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow that the Strait of Hormuz would not reopen and there would be no negotiations until Washington complies.

Iranian officials have also said the decision to keep the strait closed is not open to negotiation.

The hardening rhetoric comes as Iran’s Revolutionary Guard announced on Saturday that its self-imposed 2,000-kilometre limit on ballistic missile range had been lifted, a move analysts read as a sign that Tehran sees the conflict as existential. With the US keeping its blockade and Iran keeping the strait shut, there is still no visible route to a deal, and the impasse continues to weigh on global oil markets.

Photo Credit: Getty Images