Oman postpones Gulf meeting to unveil new Iran-Oman Hormuz routes

A meeting to unveil new Iran-Oman transit routes through the Strait of Hormuz for Gulf foreign ministers has been postponed, Omani Foreign Minister Badr Albusaidi said on September 13.

The gathering, planned for September 14 in the Omani city of Salalah, was to have been the first meeting between the six-member Gulf Cooperation Council's top diplomats and a senior Iranian official since the US and Israel launched their war on the Islamic Republic in late February, and was billed as a step towards easing months of disruption to the vital waterway.

"In the interests of consensus the regional meeting set for tomorrow in Salalah has been postponed," Albusaidi wrote on X. "We remain committed to fostering dialogue that supports stability and lasting cooperation in our region."

Regional journalist Ali Hashem, citing a source, said the meeting was put back at Saudi Arabia's request after recent attacks on oil pipelines. Riyadh has not confirmed that account.

The meeting was to present a finalised Iran-Oman agreement on new entry and exit routes for the strait, though the waterway itself would remain closed, Iran's semi-official Mehr news agency reported, citing an informed source who said intensive technical and diplomatic talks produced a final agreement in late August.

Under the arrangement, ships would enter the Gulf entirely through Iranian territorial waters, with part of the exit route also in Iranian waters and the transit run under Iranian arrangements, Iranian media reported on September 13. The plan would close the southern route Washington had pushed to open, the main trigger of recent tension, the source said. Other Gulf states and Iraq would attend only to be briefed, so that their tacit acceptance was on record.

Iran shut the strait after the war began on February 28, and the closure has kept Brent crude above $100 a barrel, with Goldman Sachs warning of $120 a barrel in the coming week.

The source said Iran had passed seven conditions to the United States through intermediaries, approved by its senior military command, and the strait would stay closed until they were met. Any reopening would then proceed on the terms of the Iran-Oman deal, in what Tehran casts as an assertion of sovereignty over the waterway.

The route builds on a framework agreed in August, when Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and Albusaidi met in Tehran to outline a temporary corridor and a joint mine-clearing effort. Iran has rejected the traffic separation scheme the International Maritime Organization set in 1968.