Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said Saturday that reopening the Strait of Hormuz depends on Washington accepting Tehran's conditions and is not tied to the Iran-Oman talks. [1] Spokesman Hossein Mohebbi, carried by Tasnim and filed by Livemint, said, "Whenever the United States accepts Iran's conditions, the Strait of Hormuz will certainly be reopened." [1] He did not list the conditions. He said the United States must stop interfering in the regional negotiation.

The paper's Saturday lead already recorded that Iran priced reopen on U.S. concessions. Mohebbi's line is the Guards publishing the split: Muscat can talk about a temporary route; the water does not move on that talk.

Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said the same day that Iran and Oman were "very close" to a new shipping route and that reopen still depended on other conditions, including U.S. compensation. [1] A U.S. official had told Reuters on Friday that Washington expected an Iran-Oman deal soon. Saturday's Guards file answered that sentence in public.

A close Oman talk is not a reopened strait. The completed Saturday record is Mohebbi naming the switch.

Livemint also recorded Araqchi saying the old traffic separation scheme was no longer acceptable and that Iran was discussing a temporary route with Oman while technical and legal issues around a permanent route were resolved. [1] A U.S. official had told Reuters on Friday that Washington expected a deal soon and would lift its blockade of Iranian ports once commercial shipping resumed without impediments. Mohebbi's Saturday sentence put the switch in Washington, not in that Friday expectation.

-- YOSEF STERN, Jerusalem