The United States is demanding that Iran publicly state it will stop attacks on ships in the Strait of Hormuz and that all lanes in the strait will be open to shipping with no tolls, senior US officials said Friday.

Iran has adamantly refused to give up control of the strait, the strategic waterway through which a fifth of the world’s oil supply typically flows, and which, prior to the war, was traversed freely by vessels. Earlier this week, three ships, including a Qatari gas tanker, were allegedly attacked by Iran, causing damage but no injuries.

The string of Iranian attacks revived concerns about freedom of navigation after a memorandum of understanding that the US and Iran reached last month required Tehran to lift its blockade of the waterway.

The US officials said Friday that conversations between the two countries have been productive in recent days. They made the comments to a small group of reporters in a conference call.

“What we’re demanding is that the Iranians issue a public statement that acknowledges all channels of the Strait of Hormuz are open, and they’re not shooting at ships anymore. They’re either going to give us that statement, or we’re not having a good outcome for them,” one official said.

Iran has told Washington that recent attacks on shipping in the strait were from “an errant part of their system,” one senior official said.

There appears to be a power struggle unfolding in real time between hardliners in Iran and pragmatists, an official said.

“We are hoping to get to a place where they publicly say that they will stop shooting at ships and sort of explicitly or at least implicitly acknowledging that they screwed up. We are working on that now,” one official said.

“The president has directed us to talk but as he’s shown a willingness to do, if they keep on shooting at ships or they engage on any........

© The Times of Israel