Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian has offered an immediate reciprocal response if the United States returns to commitments contained in a June agreement intended to end hostilities between Washington and Tehran.
Pezeshkian made the position clear on Tuesday while speaking at a Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit in Kyrgyzstan, according to the Iranian presidency’s website.
He said Tehran was prepared to take reciprocal action if Washington returned to its obligations under the memorandum of understanding reached between the two countries.
The agreement had been designed to bring an end to months of hostilities that began in late February, following US and Israeli attacks on Iran that killed former Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
However, the understanding subsequently broke down, with both Washington and Tehran accusing the other of breaching its provisions.
The latest Iranian offer comes as tensions over the Strait of Hormuz remain unresolved, with the strategic waterway continuing to be a major point of disagreement between the two countries.
Iran has maintained the closure of the waterway while indicating that it remains willing to resume its commitments under the June understanding. Those commitments included reopening the Strait of Hormuz if the United States also fulfilled its side of the agreement.
The situation has become more tense after Iran and the United States resumed exchanging fire on Monday, following more than a month of relative calm.
Pezeshkian said Tehran’s response would be immediate if Washington restored its commitments under the memorandum.
“I state explicitly that if the United States returns to its commitments under the aforementioned memorandum of understanding, the Islamic Republic of Iran will immediately take reciprocal action,” he said.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi had made a similar demand a day earlier, insisting that Washington return to the commitments contained in the agreement and to what the US president had signed.
Araghchi said such a move would create a pathway for the situation to be put “back on the right track”.
The statements from Iran indicate that Tehran continues to link any reopening of the Strait of Hormuz to the restoration of the commitments contained in the June agreement, even as military tensions between the two countries have resurfaced.