Iran has decided to shift its policy from defensive to "fully offensive" due to the deadlock in efforts to agree a permanent end to its war with the United States, a senior Iranian official told Reuters yesterday. Progress towards peace talks and a resumption of oil tanker traffic through the strategic Strait of Hormuz has ground to a halt, with no sign that the warring parties are moving towards ending the conflict that the US and Israel launched on February 28.
"Iranian entities must be prepared to escalate tensions in the Strait of Hormuz and wider region, as Iran will be ready to make decisions and take action on difficult decisions," the Iranian official said, adding that Tehran would conduct a "timely and precise" military attack to break the US naval blockade if diplomacy failed.
There was no immediate response to those comments from Washington, but US President Donald Trump said in a phone interview with Fox News yesterday that Iran "should put up the white flag of surrender".
Throughout the conflict, Trump has alternated between threats of escalation and assertions that a peace deal is imminent. Yesterday marked the day by which Iran and the United States were expected to reach a final deal under a memorandum of understanding agreed in June and aimed at ending the war.
Signed on June 17, the MoU set out a 60-day timeframe, extendable by mutual consent, by which Washington and Tehran should reach a broader agreement on issues including limiting Tehran's nuclear programme and lifting US sanctions.
That interim deal, which declared the "immediate and permanent termination of military operations on all fronts", quickly unravelled, however, due to a dispute over control of the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow waterway through which a fifth of global oil and liquefied natural gas flowed before the war.
Tehran said point 5 of the MoU gave it the right to manage the strait, which it shares with Oman, while Washington rejected that interpretation. Hostilities resumed as Tehran began firing on vessels it said were trying to sail through the waterway on an unapproved route.
Trump said on July 7 that the pact was "over". Tehran has repeatedly accused Washington of consistently violating its commitments.
"Within the short period of a few weeks set by Iran, all the agreement's provisions must be implemented by the US. This is a precondition for further negotiations with the US," the Iranian official told Reuters, adding that mediators would share Tehran's deadline with Washington and regional states.
Tehran has separately been negotiating an agreement with Oman over management of the strait, seen as a key component of a wider deal, and says they are close to agreement, although progress has been slow.
"If Oman gets in the way, we'll bomb them," Trump told Fox.
There was no immediate comment from Oman.