Iran’s Supreme National Security Council said the Strait of Hormuz will not open until the United States “corrects its behavior,” while the United Arab Emirates said one of its ships was targeted by an Iranian missile and Yemen’s military attacked the country’s Iranian-backed Houthi rebels on Saturday. The region’s rulers, armed factions, and security councils kept moving pieces on the board. Ordinary people and crews on the water got the bill.
The Strait as a Bargaining Chip
The council’s secretary, Mohammad Bagher Zolghadr, who is also a commander in the Revolutionary Guard, issued the demand in a statement published by Iran’s state broadcaster. The statement said the U.S. must never threaten Iran again and must permanently end the war with Iran and its armed allies in the region. It also said the U.S. must lift the naval blockade of Iranian ports, withdraw its military from the area, “completely compensate” Iran for war damage, lift sanctions and “unconditionally” release frozen assets.
There was no immediate comment from the U.S. The U.S. has wanted an acceptable deal first on the strait before ending the blockade. Under an interim deal signed in June, a schedule to end sanctions and a plan on compensation would be part of the final deal, and negotiations would address frozen assets. The end of a 60-day period to negotiate a final deal will come in just over a week, though it could be extended.
Iran has said it was close to reaching a separate deal with Oman to manage the strait, which runs between the two countries. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said earlier Saturday that they were close to reaching an agreement on navigation, “specifically the determination of a transit route.” He said the waterway’s reopening was contingent on other conditions. Oman, which has acted as a mediator, said in a statement Saturday that the discussions were ongoing “in a positive and constructive atmosphere” and condemned attacks on ships on the strait. The strait is crucial to global supplies of oil and natural gas and had been considered an international waterway before the war.
Ships, Missiles, and the Cost of Rule
A vessel owned by Abu Dhabi’s state-owned ADNOC oil and gas company was attacked while transiting the Strait of Hormuz, Emirati authorities said earlier Saturday. The Foreign Ministry said Iran fired the missile as part of attacks on commercial shipping. ADNOC said there were no casualties after the early Saturday attack. The company said over a dozen of its vessels have been attacked by missiles and drones while transiting the strait since the United States and Israel launched the war on Iran in February. One crew member has been killed and 20 others wounded, it said. ADNOC did not elaborate on the attack’s location or any damage.
Later, the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations Center said a vessel east of the town of Khasab, Oman, had been struck by a projectile that caused a fire that was put out, with the vessel and crew safe. It was not clear whether that was the ADNOC incident. The language of statecraft stays tidy. The wreckage doesn’t.
War, Truces, and the Next Security Apparatus
Yemen’s military said its attacks on the Houthi rebels were in response to the rebels’ recent strikes in central and eastern Yemen. Col. Majed al-Nazili, spokesperson for Yemen’s military, said the attacks targeted the rebels’ “sites and capabilities” on multiple front lines, without elaborating. The escalation between the Houthis and Yemen’s internationally recognized government and its backer, a Saudi-supported coalition, threatens to reignite Yemen’s civil war following a 2022 truce.
That truce did not end the machinery. It paused it. The same armed camps remain in place, each claiming legitimacy, each keeping civilians under the shadow of the next round of shelling, raids, and “front lines.”
Turkey’s Peace Bill and the Old Logic of Disarmament
In Turkey, a draft law aimed at advancing a peace effort with the country’s Kurdish insurgents passed its first hurdle in parliament on Saturday. A committee approved the measure, and it is expected to be approved in the general assembly next week. Last year, the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, declared its decision to disarm and disband as part of the peace initiative aimed at ending the decades-long conflict with the Turkish state. The draft legislation defines the procedures for the group’s disarmament and rehabilitation of some PKK members.
The measures would come into effect once Turkey’s National Security Council confirms that the group has disbanded and surrendered all weapons. The conflict has killed tens of thousands of people since it began in the 1980s. Turkey and its Western allies consider the group a terrorist organization. Parliament gets a bill. The security council gets the final word. The people caught in the middle get another round of managed peace, with the state still holding the keys.