Iran's Qalibaf says region will not sell oil if Iran cannot sell its own

The warning comes after a Tehran deadline for a US answer on reopening the Strait of Hormuz passed unmet.

Iran's parliament speaker, Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, said no country in the region shall sell its oil if Iran cannot sell its own, and that if Iran has no security then no regional infrastructure shall be safe, according to state media.

The remarks land a day after a Tehran deadline for a US answer on reopening the Strait of Hormuz passed without response. Foreign Minister Araghchi had said Iran expected an answer, delivered through Qatari mediators, on both the strait and the wider nuclear talks by Tuesday. Araghchi has also said the Supreme Leader's terms must be met before the strait reopens, and an Iranian official has said the strait, not the nuclear file, is now the center of the talks.

Iran's oil exports have plunged under a US naval blockade, while Saudi Arabia and Iraq have increased shipments to offset the shortfall. Saudi Arabia has routed more oil through the Persian Gulf since its east-west pipeline returned to service. Separately, a blast was heard off Qeshm Island in the strait, which Iran's state television said was likely the result of warning shots. President Trump has denied offering sanctions relief to Iran, contradicting earlier reports of a sanctions-for-nuclear-progress offer, and Iran's deputy chairman of the National Security Committee has said Washington must accept Iran's terms.

Qalibaf's comments tie Iran's own oil sales to the region's ability to sell its own, and Iran's security to the safety of regional infrastructure, extending the shift already visible in Araghchi's remarks toward the strait rather than the nuclear file as the central point of leverage. The threat now reaches beyond the strait itself to the export and infrastructure capacity of Gulf producers, raising the stakes for the Saudi and Iraqi barrels that have been covering Iran's own export losses. After weeks of missed deadlines, rejected proposals and hardening rhetoric from Iran's security establishment, the statement reads as another step up in pressure rather than a new break in the talks, though the explicit threat to regional infrastructure marks a harder line than the dispute over sequencing alone. It weighs against near-term de-escalation and supports the Hormuz-linked risk premium built into crude prices.