Level 1 — Absolute Beginner
Iran and the United States are still fighting a war. The war is about a narrow sea called the Strait of Hormuz. Many big ships use this sea to carry oil.
This week, a top Iranian council made a new list. The list has many demands for the United States. A leader named Mohammad Bagher Zolghadr wrote the list.
Iran says the US must stop the naval blockade. Iran also wants the US military to leave the area. Iran wants its frozen money back, too.
Iran also talks with the country of Oman about the sea. But Iran says these talks are a different thing. The United States has not answered yet.
- strait
- a narrow piece of water that connects two larger seas
- demand
- something a person or group asks for strongly
- council
- a group of people who make decisions together
- military
- the army, navy, and air force of a country
- blockade
- closing off a place so ships or goods cannot go in or out
- sanctions
- rules that stop a country from trading with others
- oil
- a liquid used to make fuel and energy
- government
- the group of people who run a country
Level 2 — Elementary
The war between Iran and the United States has lasted for months. At the center of the conflict is the Strait of Hormuz, a narrow waterway that ships use to carry oil from the Middle East to the rest of the world.
This week, Iran's Supreme National Security Council released a list of demands. The council's secretary, Mohammad Bagher Zolghadr, who is also a commander in Iran's Revolutionary Guard, said the strait will not fully reopen until the United States "corrects its behavior."
The demands include an end to the US naval blockade of Iranian ports, the withdrawal of American military forces from the region, the lifting of sanctions, the return of frozen Iranian assets, and payment for damage caused by the war.
Iran is also holding separate talks with Oman about reopening the strait for shipping. An Iranian military spokesperson said these two things, the demands and the Oman talks, are not connected. The United States has not responded publicly.
- conflict
- a serious disagreement or fight between groups
- waterway
- a channel or route of water that ships can travel through
- council
- an official group that discusses issues and makes decisions
- commander
- a person who leads and controls a group of soldiers
- withdrawal
- the act of pulling back or removing something, like troops
- sanctions
- official actions that limit trade or contact with a country
- compensation
- money paid to make up for a loss or damage
- spokesperson
- a person who speaks on behalf of a group
Level 3 — Intermediate
Nearly six months into the US-Iran war, Iran's Supreme National Security Council has escalated tensions by publishing a formal list of conditions that must be met before the Strait of Hormuz, a critical chokepoint for global oil shipping, will fully reopen.
Council secretary Mohammad Bagher Zolghadr, who also holds a senior command within the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, declared that the United States must "correct its behavior" first. His demands include a permanent end to hostilities, removal of the naval blockade around Iranian ports, a full withdrawal of US military assets from the region, the lifting of economic sanctions, the release of frozen Iranian funds, and financial compensation for war damage.
Separately, an IRGC spokesperson emphasized that ongoing negotiations between Iran and Oman over strait access are entirely independent of these new demands, meaning progress in one track does not guarantee movement in the other.
Analysts note that the layered, overlapping nature of Iran's demands, some diplomatic and some military, makes a quick resolution unlikely. Washington has yet to issue an official response, though it has previously insisted on an acceptable deal over the strait before considering any easing of the blockade.
- escalated
- increased in intensity or seriousness
- chokepoint
- a narrow, strategically important passage that can be blocked
- hostilities
- acts of warfare or armed conflict
- withdrawal
- the organized removal of military forces from an area
- sanctions
- economic penalties imposed to pressure a country
- negotiations
- formal discussions aimed at reaching an agreement
- overlapping
- partly covering or coinciding with each other
- resolution
- the act of finding a solution to a conflict or problem
Level 4 — Advanced
As the US-Iran war approaches its sixth month, Tehran has hardened its public posture by codifying, through its Supreme National Security Council, an explicit set of preconditions for the full reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, the world's most consequential oil chokepoint.
Council secretary Mohammad Bagher Zolghadr, a figure whose authority spans both the security establishment and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps' senior command, framed the demands as a matter of behavioral correction rather than mere negotiation, insisting Washington must permanently cease hostilities, dismantle its naval blockade of Iranian ports, withdraw its regional military footprint, rescind sanctions, unfreeze Iranian financial assets, and remit compensation for war-related damage.
Complicating the diplomatic calculus, an IRGC spokesperson explicitly decoupled the reopening of the strait from Iran's concurrent, and reportedly nearing conclusion, negotiations with Oman, signaling that Tehran intends to preserve leverage across multiple simultaneous channels rather than consolidate its position into a single bargaining track.
The maneuver underscores a broader strategic logic: by articulating maximalist demands publicly, Iran raises the political cost of any American concession while reserving the option to moderate its position privately. Washington, for its part, has offered no formal reply, having previously signaled that any relaxation of the blockade remains contingent on securing terms it considers acceptable regarding the strait itself.
- codifying
- arranging rules or principles into a formal, systematic form
- preconditions
- conditions that must be satisfied before something else can happen
- chokepoint
- a strategically vital narrow passage whose control affects broader flows of trade or power
- dismantle
- to take apart or bring to an end systematically
- decoupled
- separated from something it was previously linked to
- leverage
- power or influence used to achieve a desired outcome
- maximalist
- pursuing the most extreme or complete version of a set of demands
- contingent
- dependent on something else happening first
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