‘Pick up the phone’: IRGC appears to rebuff US Strait of Hormuz ‘hotline’

Iran’s IRGC appears to have rejected US claims of a military hotline will operate between the two countries.Tehran, Iran – Iran has indicated that there will be no direct communication between US and Iranian military officials as part of a hotline proposed by Washington designed to ease tensions in the Strait of Hormuz.Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) spokesman Hossein Mohebi downplayed reports on Friday of direct communications being established between the US and Iran to manage the strategically important waterway.It came as the US and Iran exchanged fire again on Friday and Saturday after commercial vessels sailing outside a channel designated by Tehran were targeted by unknown perpetrators.“Claims by American officials regarding the establishment of a direct line between Iran and the United States concerning the Strait of Hormuz” are completely false, Mohebi wrote on X.“This has not happened and will not happen … The Strait of Hormuz is Iranian territory and has no connection to the United States.”Channels of communicationMohebi’s X post did not elaborate on whether Tehran only rejected direct military-to-military contact with Washington, or whether a separate channel led by civilian officials would operate.Vice President JD Vance told media on Monday after a meeting between Washington and Tehran officials in Switzerland that a “channel on the Iranian side” for reducing conflict in the Gulf would be established. He also implied that direct military-to-military communications had already been agreed between the two sides.“They [Iran] were like, ‘OK, fine, we’ll send somebody from the IRGC to go hang out in Doha with somebody from CENTCOM,’ and that’s how we’re going to settle a lot of these disputes,” Vance told UK media outlet UnHerd. The IRGC is considered a “foreign terrorist organisation” by the US government.On Friday, Iranian state-run broadcaster Press TV reported that a communication line had been established between the two sides in the Strait of Hormuz after the conclusion of the Switzerland talks.