The Strait of Hormuz will remain closed unless the United States changes its behavior and accepts Iran's conditions, a senior Iranian security official said Tuesday, blaming Washington as the root cause of insecurity in the region.
Mohsen Rezaei, the head of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council (SNSC), said that the illegal U.S. war against Iran threatens the entire region, and Washington must end the conflict, unfreeze Iranian assets, and accept other conditions that have been conveyed to the U.S. administration through intermediaries.
He said that any agreement between Iran and Oman on shipping routes through the Strait of Hormuz would be handled separately from the issue of the closure of the strait.
Meanwhile, Mohammad Mokhber, an adviser to Iranian Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei, also said in a social media post on Tuesday that the Strait of Hormuz would not reopen until Iran's conditions are met.
Iran says US must accept its terms before Strait of Hormuz reopens
The death toll from the ongoing Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has surpassed 2,000, according to figures released Tuesday by the country's public health authorities.
The country has recorded 4,381 confirmed cases, including 2,011 deaths, with the overall case fatality rate standing at 45.9 percent. Over 700 patients remain in isolation or hospital care, while 869 people have recovered, according to official data.
Cases have been reported in five provinces -- Ituri, North Kivu, South Kivu, Haut-Uele and Tshopo -- with the province of Ituri remaining the epicenter of the outbreak.
"Today the Ebola epidemic surpassed 2,000 deaths, half of these in the last 20 days," UN Senior Ebola Coordinator Julien Harneis said on social media Tuesday.
"All of us in the response, aid workers, organisations, governments, donors, with the community, must do more, and do it today, to save lives and stop Ebola," he said.
The DRC government declared an outbreak on May 15. Ebola is caused by the Bundibugyo ebolavirus. There is currently no approved vaccine or specific treatment for the virus species behind the outbreak, although clinical trials of candidate vaccines and therapeutics are underway.
The outbreak has become the largest ever recorded in the DRC and the second-largest Ebola outbreak globally, after the 2014-2016 West Africa epidemic.
DR Congo Ebola death toll surpasses 2,000 as outbreak continues
