Iran’s parliament speaker took a shot at U.S. peace negotiators Thursday, calling America’s offer to unfreeze assets for agricultural purchases a harvest of “broken promises,” and Secretary of State Marco Rubio responded in kind: no deal will let Tehran charge ships to pass through the Strait of Hormuz. Period.
Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, the parliament speaker and one of Iran’s lead negotiators in the Switzerland talks, posted his rejection on social media.
“America falsely claims our unfrozen assets will buy their agriculture. Interesting,” he wrote. “The only crop we’re harvesting is what you planted: decades of mistrust. It’s organic, abundant, and homegrown. But apparently, the U.S. only exports GMO soybeans, broken promises and trash talks.”
That’s a direct shot at President Trump and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, who have both said publicly this week that the unfrozen funds would go toward purchases of American corn, wheat, and soybeans. Bessent told CNBC on Wednesday that U.S. Treasury officials would sit in Doha and watch how the money gets spent.
“A very large percent of it will go to buy U.S. foodstuffs and medicines,” Bessent said. “We will be recycling the money back into U.S. products.”
Iran is also pushing back on shipping fees. Talks between Tehran and Oman have produced a proposed framework under which vessels transiting the Strait of Hormuz would pay a fee for navigational and security services. Rubio, speaking at a Gulf Cooperation Council meeting in Bahrain Thursday, said that’s not happening.
“You can call it a toll, you can call it a fee, whatever you want to call it, it’s a game of semantics,” Rubio said. “The reality of it is that no country on Earth has a right to charge for the use of international waterways, and that will never be an acceptable condition of any deal.”
Oman’s foreign minister, Sayyid Badr bin Hamad Al Busaidi, backed that up. Speaking at the same gathering, he said Muscat will not agree to any toll arrangement, citing its obligations under international law and the U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea.
About 20 percent of the world’s oil moves through the Strait of Hormuz every year. Iran shut it down in early March after U.S. and Israeli airstrikes, sending global energy markets into turmoil. Getting the strait reopened has been the central U.S. demand since hostilities started on Feb. 28.
The current U.S.-Iran memorandum of understanding locks Tehran into keeping the waterway toll-free through the 60-day negotiating window. Both countries are trying to hammer out a permanent deal covering Iran’s nuclear program.
Iran also signaled this week it has not agreed to let U.S. nuclear inspectors into its sites, contradicting what American officials claimed from the Switzerland talks. Rubio said that commitment stands, whether Iran acknowledges it or not.
“It needs to happen,” he said. “That’s a commitment they made, and it’s one they need to keep.” If Iran doesn’t follow through, he added, Trump has options, “and that includes sanctions, and that includes other things.”
