Iran’s First Vice President Mohammad Reza Aref issued a sharp, transactional warning early Monday April 20 — hours before the second round of U.S.-Iran talks in Islamabad is set to begin on Tuesday. Aref stated plainly that security in the Strait of Hormuz cannot be guaranteed if Iran’s oil exports remain restricted by the U.S. naval blockade. The message is not ambiguous: no blockade lifted, no secure strait. The world faces a choice, he said, between “a free oil market for all” or “significant costs for everyone.”

Aref went further, linking Hormuz security directly to the broader pressure campaign: stability in global fuel prices, he said, depends on “a guaranteed and lasting end to the economic and military pressure against Iran and its allies.” That framing explicitly includes not just the naval blockade but the entire sanctions and military posture Washington has maintained. It is the clearest statement yet from a senior Iranian official that Hormuz openness and oil export access are inseparable demands — not separate negotiating tracks.

Tuesday April 22 is simultaneously the day the ceasefire expires and the day the second round of U.S.-Iran talks in Islamabad is confirmed to begin. That convergence makes this the single most consequential 24-hour window since the war started on February 28. The Aref statement — issued the morning before — is Iran’s public negotiating position going into those talks. It tells Washington exactly what Tehran expects in exchange for guaranteed passage through the world’s most important oil chokepoint: an end to the naval blockade and a broader end to economic pressure.

This also follows Iran reasserting control over Hormuz on April 18 — reversing the brief opening declared on April 17 — after the U.S. confirmed its naval blockade of Iranian ports would stay in place even after FM Araghchi’s “completely open” declaration. Two Indian-flagged vessels were reportedly targeted by Iranian gunboats on April 18. The strait is not open. The blockade is active. The talks are tomorrow. And Iran has just told the world what lifting the blockade will cost.

Iran’s position, as articulated by Aref, requires the blockade to end before Hormuz security can be assured. Washington’s position — Trump’s Truth Social post from April 17 — is that the naval blockade remains “in full force” until the “transaction with Iran is 100% complete.” That transaction includes a permanent commitment not to develop nuclear weapons, likely a 20-year enrichment suspension, the physical handover of highly enriched uranium stockpiles, and an end to Iranian funding of regional proxies. Iran offered five years in Islamabad I. The U.S. said no.

The IRGC separately warned on April 15 that if the blockade continues, Iran’s armed forces “will not allow any exports or imports to continue in the area of the Persian Gulf, the Sea of Oman and the Red Sea” — a threat that would simultaneously close the Strait, the Gulf of Oman and the Red Sea approach to the Suez Canal. Iran’s parliament hardliners have stated it would be “impossible” to accept even one clause of U.S. demands. Aref’s statement — coming from the First Vice President, not a hardliner — is the moderate version of that same message.

Sources

• Anadolu Agency — Iran Warns Security of Strait of Hormuz Cannot Be Assured If Oil Exports Restricted (April 20, 2026)
• Al Jazeera — Iran Warns US Naval Blockade Threatens Ceasefire (April 15, 2026)
• Wikipedia — 2026 Strait of Hormuz Crisis (continuously updated)