Tankers 'waiting for permission' to transit through Strait of Hormuz, Iran says

Iran's semiofficial Fars news agency aired footage Sunday of what it said were vessels "waiting for permission" from Iran to transit through the Strait of Hormuz.

The agency said Iranian authorities had stressed the strait remained closed and "any passage through it is possible only at the will of the Armed Forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran."

Iran will not give its permission to opening the Strait of Hormuz while the reports claiming that Tehran has accepted a proposal by Qatari mediators to resume the waterway’s operation have nothing to do with reality, the news agency Fars reported, citing a source in the Iranian negotiating team.

There is no agreement on resuming shipping through the Strait of Hormuz and the reports spread on this score are false, the news agency said.

The waterway will remain closed as long as "the United States continues its hostile actions," the source stressed.

This comes as US President Donald Trump says he will order American forces to hold off on new strikes against Iran, claiming Mideast allies have reached the parameters of a deal to end the 5-month old war.

The emerging deal “would include the Immediate, Complete, and Total OPENING OF THE HORMUZ STRAIT, and an end to Iran’s nuclear threat,” Trump wrote in a Saturday evening social media post.

“Based on this request, I have agreed, for the future benefit of the WORLD and, likewise, the survival of a successful and prosperous Iran, to cancel the attack, subject to being able to rapidly make a DEAL,” Trump said.

Trump has announced halts to strikes in Iran on several occasions since the US and Israel attacked Iran on February 28, only for things to unravel and fighting to resume again.

Iran’s defense minister said on X that the country was “neither surprised nor passive” following Trump’s announcement and said Iran continues to remain alert in the face of concrete threats from the US.