Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps has described the Strait of Hormuz as a “tool of power and war”, while senior officials insisted that the strategic waterway would not reopen to normal traffic until the United States met Tehran’s demands.

Brigadier General Hossein Mohebbi, an IRGC spokesman, made the remarks at a ceremony in Bandar Abbas on Saturday, according to Iran’s state-run IRNA news agency.

“The Strait of Hormuz is now a ‘tool of power and war’ in global confrontations,” IRNA quoted him as saying. The agency said Mohebbi argued that the waterway had become more than an economic corridor.

Tasnim news agency separately quoted Mohebbi as saying the strait would “certainly” reopen whenever Washington accepted Iran’s conditions. He said the decision was separate from negotiations between Iran and Oman over arrangements for shipping.

Mohammad Bagher Zolghadr, secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, set out a broader list of demands on Saturday. He called on the US to end military action against Iran and its regional allies, lift its maritime blockade and sanctions, withdraw naval and air forces from around Iran, compensate Tehran for war damage and release frozen Iranian assets.

“The Strait of Hormuz will not open until America corrects its behavior,” Zolghadr said in a statement reported by IRNA.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said on Sunday that Tehran and Washington were not holding negotiations and would not begin them while the US continued to breach an interim agreement signed in June. He said messages were instead being exchanged through intermediaries.

Araghchi said a separate Iran-Oman agreement was in its “final stages”, but stressed that it would establish shipping lanes to be used only after Iran’s other conditions had been met. An agreement with Muscat would therefore not, by itself, reopen the strait.

That position conflicts with the account given by a US official on Friday. The official told Reuters that Washington expected an Iran-Oman agreement soon and would lift its blockade of Iranian ports once commercial shipping resumed without impediment. The official said US steps would depend on Iran implementing its commitments.

Oman’s Foreign Ministry said negotiations on arrangements governing navigation were proceeding in a “positive and constructive atmosphere”. It also condemned repeated attacks on vessels transiting the strait, without assigning responsibility, and urged all sides to avoid action that could undermine the talks.

The warning followed a UAE accusation that Iran had fired a missile at a carrier linked to state oil company ADNOC as it passed through the strait on Saturday. The UAE said there were no injuries but gave no details about the vessel, its cargo or any damage. It accused the IRGC of “acts of piracy”, an allegation Iran had not immediately addressed.

The UK Maritime Trade Operations agency separately reported that a vessel east of Khasab, Oman, had been struck by an unknown projectile. A resulting fire was extinguished, the crew was safe and no environmental damage was reported. It was unclear whether the report concerned the same vessel.

Before the conflict began on 28 February, about one-fifth of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas passed through the strait. Shipping has since been repeatedly disrupted.

Araghchi’s comments on Sunday left the Oman track active but confirmed that no direct US-Iran negotiations were under way.