Iran maintains demands to end war as US steps up military pressure | US-Israeli war against Iran

Tehran, Iran – The Iranian government has signaled further US strikes but insists the pressure will have no impact on its demands to end the war.

Ahmad Nafisi, deputy governor of Hormozgan, where the US strikes took place overnight, confirmed on Monday morning that the southern island of Qeshm had been targeted but that no residential and commercial areas or vital infrastructure had been damaged.

The United States has not directly acknowledged the airstrikes, but Secretary of State Marco Rubio reiterated Washington’s characterization of similar recent strikes on Qeshm as “defensive.” Previous attacks, the latest of which was acknowledged by President Donald Trump on Friday, have targeted Iranian air defenses and radar installations.

The mediators are trying to prevent large-scale US attacks on Iran, which Trump has repeatedly threatened, while continuing negotiations. But Washington appears unwilling to accept Iran’s seven demands aimed at ending the war, including lifting the US blockade on southern Iranian ports and lifting sanctions against Tehran.

Seven demands

Esmail Baghaei, a spokesperson for Iran’s Foreign Ministry, on Monday dismissed Rubio’s remarks that some of the seven demands were “ridiculous and really unrealistic.”

“The Iranian plan remains the most logical plan on the table. I believe it can lead to the return of security in the Strait of Hormuz and the Persian Gulf and create the basis for a process,” Baghaei said at a news conference in Tehran.

The terms are essentially a return to the Islamabad memorandum of understanding signed in June between Iran and the United States. But Tehran now has additional provisions regarding the future of the Strait of Hormuz.

Baghaei said the U.S. announcement of a reward of up to $20 million for information on Iran’s nuclear program is a ploy by the Trump administration to “create the feeling that the Iranian nuclear issue is still a threat,” after the Republican Party’s heavy defeats in the midterm elections.

Tehran says it will not part with its highly enriched uranium, which is believed to be buried under the rubble of facilities bombed by the United States and Israel last year. But he is open to reducing the mixing of materials, which would be necessary to build a nuclear bomb.

International inspectors do not have access to Iran’s nuclear sites, with the exception of the Bushehr nuclear power plant, where the Foreign Ministry said it had visited recently.

Iran has accused the International Atomic Energy Agency and its director, Rafael Grossi, of deviating from their technical mandate and creating the ground for attacks on nuclear facilities during last year’s 12-day war and the current war.

There have been signs of positive progress in mediation efforts, with reports that Trump and Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani will meet at the White House on Monday.

But Andreas Krieg, an associate professor at King’s College London, told Al Jazeera that Washington’s biggest objection to the ongoing mediation talks is that Iran is essentially demanding the rewards of a deal before providing the concessions that warrant it.

“Reopening Hormuz within two days seems accommodating, but it changes the timetable rather than the substance of the deal,” he told Al Jazeera of the Iranian proposal.

The United States and Iran’s Arab neighbors would not accept Iranian-approved long-term maritime corridors in the Strait of Hormuz.

Rubio and other officials are also against Iran’s demand to end hostilities in the region because it would restrict Israel’s freedom of military action.

“Iran is going beyond a ceasefire, trying to translate its wartime influence into a new regional security arrangement on its own terms,” Krieg said.

Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said Sunday that the country’s military mission in Iran remains unfinished and threatened Lebanese Hezbollah with further territorial losses if it joins an Iranian attack.

Tankers and navigation systems covered

Iranian authorities continue to warn ships transiting the Strait of Hormuz to refrain from using “unauthorized” routes or face potential attacks.

Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) spokesman Hossein Mohebbi rejected the US claim that all naval mines had been removed from the Strait of Hormuz.

“No one dares to enter the Strait of Hormuz to remove mines,” he said on Sunday.

Iranian state television reported Monday that 11 oil tankers had been attacked in the past 10 days, with four of them unable to continue transit.

IRGC-affiliated media outlets cited an anonymous IRGC navy source as saying on Monday that maritime navigation systems had been targeted in southern areas of the waterway overnight, preventing oil tankers from transiting as part of the U.S.-coordinated oil shuttle system.

Trump on Sunday downplayed prospects of a return to all-out war with Iran, but added that the U.S. military had designated civilian infrastructure like 38 bridges as targets if war resumed on a full scale.

Krieg said he expects Tehran to continue its strategy of “controlled escalation” rather than immediate and full retaliation against U.S. strikes.

“New U.S. efforts to disrupt Iran’s land trade will reinforce this strategy. Tehran will increasingly seek to pass the economic consequences of Washington’s decisions onto the Gulf states, hoping that they will pressure Trump toward compromise,” Krieg said.

“Washington may believe it is waging a limited campaign of coercion, while Tehran increasingly considers unrestricted economic warfare against its survival. At some point, Iran may decide that the costs of continued restraint outweigh the risks of escalation.”