“The United Arab Emirates said Iran launched a missile attack on one of its ships, as a top Iranian official laid out a series of tough demands for opening the Strait of Hormuz -- developments that darkened the outlook for a deal to open the strategic waterway.
The U.A.E. blamed Saturday's attack on the hard-line Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, the paramilitary group tasked with protecting the regime and maintaining Tehran's grip on the strait.
The U.A.E.'s Adnoc oil company said on Friday that three of its ships already had been hit by missiles or drones this past week. A total of 15 have been struck since the beginning of the war, it said, a figure that doesn't include Saturday's attack.
The condition of the ship wasn't clear but Adnoc said the incident resulted in no injuries, and the situation has been brought under control.
Mohammad Bagher Zolghadr, secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, said the U.S. would need to permanently end the war, lift its naval blockade, withdraw its forces, end all sanctions, free Iran's frozen assets, pay war reparations, end threats and insults, and stop military action against Iran's militia allies around the region before Iran would open the strait, state news agency IRNA reported.
The council, which is dominated by hard-liners and reports to Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei, is reviewing a draft deal between Iran and Oman to create new lanes for traffic in the strait and gradually reopen the waterway in exchange for U.S. concessions.
While not Iran's formal response nor conditions raised by Tehran's negotiators -- and the demands are obvious nonstarters for the U.S. -- Zolghadr's comments showed that the Revolutionary Guard is setting high hurdles to a deal that would improve the flow of energy supplies and ease the pressure on the global economy.
The Revolutionary Guard early in the war choked off traffic through the strait, which had been the conduit for a fifth of the world's oil, and has kept it constrained with regular attacks on ships. The U.S. has failed for months to pry it open via diplomacy or military force, though U.S. forces have helped many ships transit.
President Trump this month called off U.S. attacks aimed at breaking the deadlock, citing progress in talks. He and other administration officials have said a deal to reopen the strait was close. But mediators say it has stalled amid Iranian demands for financial relief and a U.S. insistence that shipping traffic not be impeded.
"For us, the Strait of Hormuz is not merely an economic waterway, but rather a key component of our geopolitical and strategic power," the Revolutionary Guard's spokesman said on Saturday on state media.
The spokesman and Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said the agreement with Oman wouldn't reopen the strait without concessions from the U.S.
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian on Saturday said the time could be right to pursue negotiations. But mediators said Zolghadr's unrealistic demands and the attack on shipping on Saturday confirmed their concerns that hard-liners are stalling approval of the deal.
Iran is vowing to bar U.S. Navy warships from passing through the Strait of Hormuz as part of any agreement to reopen the waterway, pressing its goal of curtailing the U.S.'s decades-old military presence in the Persian Gulf.
U.S. officials have told mediators they wouldn't accept Iranian restrictions or tolls on Hormuz traffic.” [1]
1. World News: U.A.E. Says Iran Launched Missile Attack --- Tehran ties opening strait to U.S. ending war and sanctions, withdrawing forces. Faucon, Benoit; Said, Summer. Wall Street Journal, Eastern edition; New York, N.Y.. 10 Aug 2026: A6.
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