US demands Iran guarantee Strait of Hormuz is open

**Keith Adams** (0:00)
This is the Global News Podcast from the BBC World Service.
I'm Keith Adams, and in the early hours of Saturday, the 11th of July, these are our main stories. The US demands that Iran publicly acknowledges the Strait of Hormuz is open and pledges to stop firing on commercial ships. There's relief in Nigeria over the rescue of more than 25 school children and their teachers who were abducted by gunmen in May. And new figures show that deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon has slowed. Also in this podcast, we'll have the latest from the World Cup and we listen in on a matchmaking retreat in South Korea.

**SPEAKER_3** (0:42)
I think I want to have some baby and family, you know. I really like to care somebody and that's why I came here with some cookies and I really want to wish to make a family with good people.

**Keith Adams** (0:55)
All that and more to come.
When the US and Iran signed their Memorandum of Understanding around three weeks ago, it was meant to extend the ceasefire between the two countries while talks continued on a final agreement. One of the key points was that the Strait of Hormuz would reopen to traffic. But it hasn't been that simple. There have been several exchanges of fire and it sometimes seemed that the war was breaking out again. Now, senior officials in Washington are demanding that Iran's leadership publicly state that the Strait of Hormuz is open to commercial ships. Our North America correspondent Peter Bowes told us more about what they said.

**Peter Bowes** (1:37)
This all emerged, Keith, from a briefing call by senior US officials with a small group of reporters, including a colleague from the BBC's US partner CBS. And they were talking about the current state of play with Iran. The officials said that we are in a wait and see moment and that the next couple of days will be interesting. But they said that they won't wait forever. And crucially, they said a message had been sent to Iran's leadership, conveyed through regional mediators. And that message demands that Tehran publicly acknowledges that the Strait of Hormuz is open and that it also promises to stop firing on commercial ships. And that of course was the reason why the US launched two nights of strikes back on Iranian sites in the south of the country earlier this week. The Trump administration saying that Iran had violated that memorandum of understanding, that it signed, as you say, three weeks ago by repeatedly attacking those vessels in and around the state. It seems as if now officials want some sort of guarantee, and they want it quickly, that this won't happen again.

**Keith Adams** (2:44)
So, this is an effort to get the talks back on track. Where have we got to with the talks? Do we know if they've achieved anything?

**Peter Bowes** (2:50)
Well, from this briefing, they said that the talks will indeed continue, although the ceasefire is no longer in place, and the president made that clear earlier in the day. And officials said that the US is making progress in negotiating with senior Iranian leaders, and the hope is that if there is a continued de-escalation of tensions, that will help these talks make further progress. However, the officials implied that they don't have a great confidence in Iran's ability to honour a nuclear deal, which is ultimately why President Trump says this war started in the first place.
No confidence in agreeing that, if they can't even stop shooting at ships. But according to these officials, the US is hopeful that, to quote them, sensible people will prevail.

**Keith Adams** (3:41)
What's the consequences if Iran refuses to make this public statement, Peter? Do we know?

**Peter Bowes** (3:47)
That wasn't immediately spelt out, if there isn't any kind of public statement in the coming hours or coming days. But it's been very clear from what President Trump has been saying over the last two or three days, that if there is a repeat of shooting at commercial vessels in the Strait of Hormuz, that the US will attack back and strike. I think the phrase was, if they strike once, we will strike 20 times. So the president making it pretty clear that the United States is in no mood for these attacks on vessels continuing and that it will respond.

**Keith Adams** (4:22)
Peter Bowes in Washington.
There's some good news from Nigeria. The presidency says all the children and teachers who were kidnapped from a school in Oyo State in May have been rescued. The incident caused particular concern because the authorities in the southwestern region blamed the attack on jihadists. Most jihadist violence has historically been concentrated in the country's northeast. A video shared online appears to show a large group of children and a teacher thanking the security forces and President Bola Tinubu for their rescue.