Iran calls the US answer on reopening Hormuz insufficient as another tanker is struck

Iran’s security chief, Mohsen Rezaei, said the US response to Iran’s proposal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz was insufficient^1,2. “We presented seven conditions to the Americans and clearly stated that the Strait of Hormuz would not be opened to them, and no negotiations would take place,” he said, in an account carried by Israeli coverage³. Reuters reported the same formulation, that the strait would not be opened and no negotiations would take place until the conditions are met, and said the White House did not respond in a passage the excerpt leaves unfinished¹.

Turkish state coverage reported that Iran conveyed the seven conditions to Washington about two weeks ago⁴. Iranian coverage identified Rezaei as the representative of Iran’s Supreme Leader and the secretary of the Supreme National Security Council, and reported him saying the end of the war was within reach in a sentence the excerpt cuts off⁵. These are Iranian government statements about Iranian intentions, not an independent account of what Washington offered.

Why it matters to investors

The attacks did not pause for the diplomacy. UKMTO reported that an oil tanker was struck by a projectile in the Strait of Hormuz with its crew reported safe, in a Saudi Press Agency item dated October 11, 2026⁷. India’s ministry of external affairs condemned attacks on commercial vessels in the Strait of Hormuz region on 11 October 2026 and said MT PETRO DOLPHIN was reportedly struck by a drone⁸. Iraqi coverage described the vessel as damaged by an unidentified projectile and noted that CENTCOM said a US fighter jet had struck a ship, in a passage the excerpt does not complete¹⁰.

The Economist reported that Iran has resumed attacks on ships in the strait, with more than a dozen incidents since September 28th, and that traffic has slowed⁶. That is the context for the Fund’s and the market’s energy assumptions: a waterway that is open in name, expensive in practice, and now without a negotiating track^1,6.

What to watch

Freight is where the cost shows first. Tanker rates have soared to a record as the oil crisis becomes a shipping crisis, and the chief executive of the world’s biggest independent oil trader, Russell Hardy, called the shuttle-shipping through the strait “very inefficient”, in a description the excerpt leaves unfinished⁹.

Posture is the second thing to watch. The head of the IRGC, Ahmed Vahidi, called the strait Iran’s strategic red line in a post on X, and CNN reported that UKMTO had also received a further report on Sunday, in a sentence the excerpt does not complete¹¹. Third is whether the seven conditions are ever published: so far they have been described only by Tehran^3,4.