The Wall Street Journal reports:

Iran has the exclusive right to manage traffic in the Strait of Hormuz under the preliminary peace deal signed with President Trump, Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said on Sunday, adding that attempts to circumvent its authority risk triggering more strikes like those seen in recent days.

The comments were among the clearest by a top official that Iran expects sole authority over the strait under the deal aimed at reopening the strategic waterway. They are at odds with American arguments that the deal doesn’t give Iran control and that navigation must be unimpeded in the international waterway.

Tehran’s assertion of authority followed several days of back-and-forth strikes with the U.S. that began when Iran attacked a ship trying to cross the strait by hugging the coast of Oman. Tehran, which wants ships to follow a separate course along its coastline, had warned ships against using that alternative route.

“Iran has little interest in watching its leverage wash away with every ship rerouted through Omani waters,” said Ali Vaez, the Iran project director at the International Crisis Group, a conflict-resolution organization.

The fighting has rattled shipowners and has thrown a budding reopening of the waterway into doubt, threatening the key achievement of Trump’s preliminary deal, which pushes discussions of more contentious issues, including Iran’s nuclear program, into a second phase.

Those talks were expected to resume this weekend in Switzerland but have been stalled by the fighting, people familiar with the matter said.

“The management and full restoration of maritime traffic in the Strait of Hormuz is Iran’s responsibility,” Araghchi said, according to state media. “No other country or entity has any responsibility or authority in this matter.” [Continue reading…]