(SeaPRwire) –
By: Marcus Sinclair
Iran’s IRGC commander has openly declared Tehran will keep pursuing nuclear weapons as long as the United States and Israel maintain theirs. That is not a negotiating position. It is a statement of strategic intent. Yet the Trump administration is now considering reopening the Strait of Hormuz before meaningfully addressing the nuclear program. The sequence itself is the concession.
IRGC commander-in-chief Ahmad Vahidi stated the position plainly on Wednesday. He said Iran would continue its nuclear work indefinitely until Washington and Jerusalem disarm. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu answered with a vow to keep preventing an Iranian bomb, with or without a deal. He made his remarks at the reinterment ceremony for Shimon and Rivka Herzl. He also praised Donald Trump as Israel’s strongest ally in the White House. Trump told Trace Gallagher on Tuesday that military force remained an option if talks collapsed. He insisted Iran could never obtain a nuclear weapon. He described Tuesday’s talks as very good. He said the Strait of Hormuz would come first. The nuclear file would follow.
Andrea Stricker of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies sees a trap in that ordering. She said Iran wants to steer negotiations toward issues it values most, not the issues America values most. Securing major U.S. concessions over Hormuz comes first. Sanctions relief follows. Nuclear restrictions wait. There is also evidence Iran proposed this sequence back in April, according to Axios. Tehran wanted the war ended and the strait reopened before nuclear talks began. Kelsey Davenport of the Arms Control Association agreed with the diagnosis. She said Iran is capitalizing on the leverage gained by disrupting maritime traffic. She warned that Iran will still possess the bomb-making capability regardless of any agreement. The knowledge cannot be bombed away. The enriched-uranium stockpiles remain. The infrastructure remains. Davenport said the IAEA has not visited key Iranian nuclear sites in more than a year. That gap matters. It means Washington lacks a reliable inventory of what still exists and what has already moved.
A proposed arrangement between Iran and Oman could grant Tehran control over ships entering the Persian Gulf, according to Reuters. A senior Iranian source and two regional officials confirmed the report on Wednesday. The precise meaning of Iranian control is still being negotiated. Iran is also seeking transit fees. Washington opposes both the control and the fees. Stricker warned that leaving nuclear issues last almost guarantees a weak deal. She urged the administration to link every Hormuz concession and every sanctions break to a measurable Iranian step on the nuclear file. Davenport recommended restoring IAEA inspections first. She also favored a series of smaller, verifiable deals over one sweeping package.
The question now is whether Trump’s team will accept Iran’s sequencing or force a different one. Hormuz access is critical to global energy markets. Sanctions relief would ease pressure on the Iranian economy. Both are real prizes. Neither should come before the nuclear file receives equal or greater weight in the negotiating order. The alternative is a settlement that saves a waterway and costs a nonproliferation regime.
Author bio: Marcus Sinclair is a Senior Fellow at a prominent European geopolitical and security think tank, with expertise in Middle Eastern security architecture and nuclear deterrence policy.