Iranian Journalist Mohammad Ghaderi says Reuters report is false and its goal is to control the price of oil; no negotiations underway

A journalist-level denial, even from a figure close to the state position, carries less weight than one from the foreign ministry or the negotiating team itself, and wire reports of this kind have often rested on intermediary or back-channel contacts that both sides have incentives to disavow. The accusation that the report aims to manage oil prices is a familiar rhetorical device in these episodes and does not change the underlying fact pattern. The substantive line is the restated condition: sanctions relief in a single step as a precondition for any reopening of the Strait under Iranian control, which keeps the disruption risk premium anchored in crude, with the transmission running through freight and insurance costs and prompt spreads rather than outright length. The tells are whether the denial is echoed at official level, whether the originating agency stands by its sourcing, and any movement in tanker traffic or war-risk rates in the Gulf.