France ties lifting sanctions on Iran to the opening of the Strait of Hormuz

French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot on Thursday ruled out the possibility of lifting any international sanctions imposed on Iran as long as the Strait of Hormuz remains closed.

Barrot said, “Iran, or at least the Iranian regime, is asking the United States in particular to ease sanctions in exchange for concessions on its nuclear program, which needs to be contained.”

He added in an interview on French radio RTL, “But it is not conceivable to lift any sanctions while the Strait of Hormuz remains closed.”

The French foreign minister reminded listeners that any strait is “a shared asset of humanity,” stressing that “its closure is not justifiable under any circumstances, nor is the imposition of any form of toll, nor its use as a tool of extortion.”

Barrot reiterated that reaching a durable political settlement in the Near and Middle East is not possible “unless the Iranian regime agrees to make substantial concessions and to drastically change its approach to allow Iran to live in peace within its regional environment.”

Earlier, U.S. President Donald Trump had described reaching an agreement with Iran to end the war in the Middle East as “very possible.”

The U.S. site Axios, close to the White House, quoted “two U.S. officials and two other informed sources” as saying there was a “one-page memorandum of understanding aimed at ending the war and establishing a framework for more detailed nuclear negotiations.”

The site explained that “the agreement would require Iran to freeze uranium enrichment in exchange for U.S. agreement to lift its sanctions and release billions of dollars of frozen Iranian assets, and both parties would also lift restrictions on transit through the Strait of Hormuz.”

Iran is under strict international sanctions. Europeans reimposed their own sanctions last September after talks failed to produce an agreement that would tightly constrain Iran’s nuclear program.