Oman has said positive talks have been taking place with Iran over an agreement to secure a shipping route through the Strait of Hormuz, as Tehran warned that any deal would not see an immediate reopening of the vital waterway.
Both sides suggested on Saturday that discussions were progressing, but a timeline on any deal being finalised remained unclear. Oman’s foreign ministry warned against attacks on shipping that could hamper that.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said talks were in their final stages but the reopening of the strait remained “subject to other conditions”.
Tehran has effectively blockaded the waterway, through which around a fifth of the world’s oil and natural gas usually flows, since the US and Israel began attacking it in February.
Talks in recent days have focused on the possibility of a deal between Iran and Oman on a new route through the strait, which they would both have responsibility for and is hoped would lead to progress in resuming shipping traffic.
But Araghchi said a full reopening of the typically busy maritime route depended on other conditions being met, of which he provided a cursory appraisal.
He said the conditions included Iran receiving compensation from the US for what Tehran described as violations of the deal both sides signed in June to cease fighting and advance talks to end the war.
That deal – called a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) – quickly fell through, as did diplomatic talks, with tit-for-tat attacks resuming just days after it was signed.
Separately, Mohammad Baqer Zolqadr, Iran’s security chief, told the semi-official news agency Tasnim that the Strait of Hormuz would not reopen until the US “corrects” its behaviour.
He said the US needed to meet six Iranian demands, including a halt to threats against Iran, removal of its naval blockade of Iranian ports and release of Iran’s frozen assets.
Another blockade, on Saudi Arabia’s ports in the Red Sea, had been imposed by Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthis since 20 July.