Iran insists enriched uranium stay in country, links reopening Hormuz to meeting its conditions
Key Facts
Tehran insisted that enriched nuclear materials remain inside the country and tied the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz to Washington accepting its conditions, while saying indirect communications were continuing through Pakistan and Qatar. China Daily quoted Mohsen Rezaei, secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, as saying, "Not a single particle of enriched nuclear material will leave Iran." Rezaei described the materials as national wealth intended for use inside the country. He added that Iran would not enter negotiations until the United States took confidence-building steps and met Tehran’s conditions. Meanwhile, Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said indirect communications were ongoing, while the strait would remain closed until Washington accepted Iran’s conditions.
Araghchi said the Iranian initiative included a timetable for reopening the sea corridor and resuming negotiations. According to China Daily, the initiative lasts 7 days, with the strait fully reopening on the sixth day. This is part of a conditional negotiating proposal, not an announcement of a new threat to close a strait that was open. The newspaper quoted Araghchi as saying Washington had accepted Iran’s conditions but requested additional clauses. The proposal reflects an acknowledged overlap on some conditions, while differences remain over the requested additions and the negotiating path.
Tehran’s demands, as reported by China Daily, center on a ceasefire across the Middle East, the release of its frozen assets abroad and the lifting of sanctions on the oil sector. The conditions reported by Reuters include the lifting of the U.S. blockade on Iranian ports, the removal of sanctions on oil exports and an end to hostilities on regional fronts. Rezaei had said the absence of confidence-building steps prevented negotiations, while a Reuters report on 18 October said Tehran had received a U.S. response through Qatari mediators. The report quoted the council secretary as saying negotiations had stalled because Washington had not addressed all seven conditions. On 11 October, Rezaei described the U.S. response as insufficient, saying some conditions had been accepted while other issues remained unclear.
The nuclear program remains a key point of disagreement between the two sides, as Reuters said Washington had insisted from the start of negotiations on discussing Iran’s program. The agency quoted U.S. Vice President J.D. Vance as saying Iran must meaningfully reduce its uranium-enrichment capacity to meet U.S. demands and end the war that has been ongoing for 8 months. U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Washington wants to ensure Iran does not obtain a nuclear weapon and said his country was prepared for further military action. Secretary of State Marco Rubio also said reaching a peace agreement was "very difficult" and that economic pressure would continue as long as Tehran targeted commercial shipping in the strait. Iran and the United States had signed a memorandum of understanding in June aimed at reaching a lasting settlement to the conflict, but China Daily said the arrangement did not last long.
The diplomatic stalemate coincides with continued risks to shipping in the Gulf. The Associated Press reported that Iran announced on 22 October that 7 oil tankers had caught fire or been damaged in the strait overnight after being attacked or striking naval mines. The agency cited Lloyd’s data recording 28 attacks on ships during October through 22 October, the highest number since the war began. It added that October saw the largest number of reported attacks on commercial shipping since the war’s first weeks in March, according to the UK Maritime Trade Operations. The agency noted that some shipping companies were reluctant to report incidents, while no recent attacks cited by the agency had been recorded.
The strait’s importance to global energy is reflected in the volume of flows passing through it: oil flows averaged 20.9 million barrels per day in the first half of 2025, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. These volumes represented about 20% of global petroleum liquids consumption and a quarter of seaborne oil trade over the same period. But flows fell, according to the administration, from 21.6 million barrels per day in the fourth quarter of 2025 to 4.9 million in the second quarter of 2026. On the military front, the Associated Press said on 1 October that the U.S. military was sending about 9,000 troops to the Middle East aboard a ship group that includes a third aircraft carrier. The group’s arrival could mean 3 aircraft carriers in the region by late October, according to the agency’s estimate.
China Daily separately reported that the USS Theodore Roosevelt carrier strike group and the 13th Marine Expeditionary Unit were expected to arrive by the end of November. The newspaper estimated the carrier group had about 6,000 sailors and the Marine unit and amphibious group had about 4,200 personnel. This timeline differs from the Associated Press estimate on 1 October that 3 carriers could be in the region late that month. The agency had reported that the USS George H.W. Bush and USS George Washington carriers and the USS Boxer amphibious group were in the region. It added that the Washington had been transferred from the Pacific to replace the USS Abraham Lincoln.