Tehran announced on Monday, August 3rd that it was attempting to agree a new shipping route with Oman to reset relations in the Strait of Hormuz. Pointedly, for now these talks exclude the United States.
U.S. president Donald Trump claims to have paused the biggest strike on any country “since world war two” in order to restart negotiations.
Tehran’s foreign ministry representative Esmaeil Baghaei floated the possibility of charging fees in exchange for providing shipping with maritime services, returning to a theme favoured by Tehran. A version of this proposal would see a new Omani-Iranian joint company supply all the services that insurance companies used to offer maritime interests operating in the region.
Baghaei told a Tehran press conference:
We are now talking about a corridor that will have a round trip route, not two or three separate routes. This intermediate route [being proposed] is to be used temporarily until a decision is made on a fixed route.
If implemented, the framework under discussion would replace the longstanding prewar route once overseen by the UN’s International Maritime Organization. Despite these ambitions, the distinctive U.S. approach to the Strait, the behind-the-scenes lobbying of Saudi Arabia, and even the lack of power symmetry between Iran and Oman all call the prospects of Tehran’s proposal into question.
