Iran's Foreign Ministry said Monday the Strait of Hormuz will not reopen until the United States meets Tehran's conditions, extending a blockade that's kept roughly one-fifth of the world's traded oil supplies off the market and driven energy prices to the center of U.S. politics ahead of November's midterm elections. Esmail Baghaei, an Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson, said Iran wants the U.S. to end its blockade, pay compensation for months of war damage, lift economic sanctions and release Iran's frozen assets before allowing ships through the strategic waterway.
Iran's Maximalist Strategy
The regime appointed Mohsen Rezaei, a military adviser to its new supreme leader, to head the Supreme National Security Council on Sunday. Rezaei commanded Iran's paramilitary Revolutionary Guard from 1981 to 1997, a period that includes Iran's 1980s war with Iraq. The 71-year-old hardliner last week threatened American forces with serious risks and casualties if the U.S. didn't lift its blockade of Iranian ports. The Institute for the Study of War, a U.S.-based think-tank, said Rezaei appears willing to negotiate with the U.S. but has also been unwilling to present any Iranian concessions. He replaced Mohammad Bagher Zolghadr, who took the security council role in March after his predecessor was killed by an Israeli strike.
President Masoud Pezeshkian described a nearly seven-hour meeting with Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei in an interview with Iranian state television, saying they discussed people's livelihoods, the state of the market, employment, people's housing, as well as problems that are now being created as a result of the U.S. sanctions. He said Khamenei stressed unity. All of the enemy's plans are aimed at creating division, Pezeshkian said. What we have to do is prevent divisions from emerging. Pezeshkian said it was only the second time he'd met with the new supreme leader since Khamenei was appointed in March following a U.S.-Israeli strike that killed his father. Khamenei, who was believed to have been wounded in the same attack, hasn't appeared in public since then.
Yemen Front Activated
The regime's strategy extends beyond Hormuz. Yasmeen al-Eryani, an analyst at the Sana'a Center for Strategic Studies, said the recent Mahan Air flight saga is part of Iran's escalation of the war. By activating the Yemeni front, Tehran reiterates the strategic value of that pressure lever and signals that attacks on Iran can produce costs elsewhere, particularly for Saudi Arabia and the Gulf, she said. The latest spiral began July 13, when a Saudi airstrike hit the runway of the airport in Yemen's capital, Sanaa, and prevented the landing of an Iranian flight carrying a high-ranking Houthi delegation. The Houthis had tried to fly the plane without prior permission from the Saudi-led coalition, a decade-long war-related requirement, in what the AP said was an attempt to establish a new reality on the ground and challenge the coalition's control over Yemeni airspace.
The rebels turned down an offer by the Saudi-backed internationally recognized government in Yemen to facilitate the delegation's travel to Sanaa on a non-Iranian airline, according to government and Houthi officials who spoke on condition of anonymity. The Houthis proceeded with the flight operated by Iranian privately owned, U.S.-sanctioned Mahan Air, forcing the Saudi-led strike that disabled the Sanaa airport. The coalition later allowed the flight to land in Houthi-controlled Hodeida as part of an Omani-led effort to avert escalation, according to a Gulf official who also spoke anonymously.
After the Sanaa airport strike, the Houthis attacked Abha airport in southwestern Saudi Arabia and announced a blockade on Saudi shipping in the Red Sea. They attacked Saudi vessels and oil facilities inside the kingdom, adding further disruption to the global economy. The Saudi-led coalition responded with strikes on Hodeida and Kamaran, Yemen's largest island in the Red Sea, and reinforced Yemeni troops along the front lines to launch a ground offensive on the Houthis, Yemeni officials said. Anticipating that offensive, the rebels launched dozens of missiles and drones on military camps in central and southern Yemen, killing dozens of troops and civilians. They also attacked the Red Sea city of Mokha, severely damaging its crucial port, which remains under the control of the internationally recognized government.
Civilian Toll Mounts
Yemen's Iran-backed Houthi rebels attacked the government-held Red Sea port town of Mokha on Sunday, killing seven people and injuring 30, Yemen's Defense Ministry said. It said four military personnel and three civilians were killed. The attack on Mokha was described as part of one of the largest waves of Houthi strikes on Yemeni military positions and areas held by the Saudi-backed government since the 2022 truce. The AP said the threats to shipping through the Strait of Hormuz have renewed focus on the Red Sea and Bab el-Mandeb Strait at its southern tip, and some shipping has shifted toward that route with Hormuz largely off limits to traffic.
U.N. envoy Hans Grundberg warned that Yemen faces a greater risk of renewed large-scale conflict than at any point since the U.N.-brokered truce of April 2022. He said the escalation risks jeopardizing the gains of the 2022 truce while also drawing the country into a broader regional confrontation, with devastating consequences for its people. Grundberg said he's held intensive talks with Yemeni parties and regional governments to avert further escalation. Iran is holding separate talks with Oman over transit through the strait, including potentially a temporary shipping corridor, but has said any reopening depends on talks with the U.S.
Why This Matters:
Iran's simultaneous chokehold on the Strait of Hormuz and activation of its Houthi proxy in Yemen reveal the regime's strategy of using non-state actors and strategic geography to impose costs on adversaries while avoiding direct confrontation. The closure of Hormuz has kept one-fifth of the world's traded oil off the market for months, driving energy prices that now dominate U.S. domestic politics. Tehran's appointment of Revolutionary Guard veteran Mohsen Rezaei to lead its security council signals a hardline approach that demands maximal concessions while offering none in return. The Houthis' escalation in Yemen demonstrates how Iran can open new fronts through proxies, forcing Saudi Arabia and Gulf states to fight on multiple axes while the regime negotiates from a position it believes is strengthened by chaos. The fourth year of Yemen's truce now faces collapse, threatening to pull the Arabian Peninsula back into large-scale conflict at precisely the moment Iran seeks leverage over Washington. The global economy remains hostage to a regime that views strategic waterways and proxy militias as negotiating chips.