Iran has said a deal with Oman to reopen the Strait of Hormuz is close to being finalised, with reports suggesting Tehran would have control over ships entering the Gulf through the strategic waterway.
Control and Concessions
Both countries, which sit on opposite ends of the narrow strait, have been engaged in talks to jointly manage the key shipping route, which has been effectively closed since the start of the war in February. Iran has insisted the strait would not operate as it did before the conflict, as an open international waterway that carried about a fifth of the world’s oil and gas supply, as it seeks greater control over the flow of maritime traffic through the channel.
Several media reports, citing sources familiar with the talks, suggest Oman would oversee outbound shipping through the strait.
But despite reports of potentially one of the biggest concessions yet to Iran, Reuters news agency said Iranian sources rejected US President Donald Trump’s claims that a deal to reopen the strait was imminent, saying important details were still to be agreed.
“The concession has already been made regarding some form of control over Hormuz,” one of the sources said.
Iran has also said that reopening the strait would hinge on the US lifting its blockade of Iranian ports.
Trump told Fox News earlier this week that talks over the strait were “moving along nicely”, adding that the strait “is going to be open very soon”.
Regional Escalations
In Yemen, meanwhile, the Iran-backed Houthis said yesterday they had attacked two Saudi oil tankers with ballistic missiles, amid the group’s maritime blockade of the kingdom.
Two Israeli reserve soldiers were killed and four seriously injured in an explosion in southern Lebanon, the military said this morning – the first Israeli deaths since the fragile truce between Israel and the Iran-backed militant Hezbollah in June. An Israeli military official told the Associated Press that “an explosion was detonated” when the soldiers entered a site in the village of Majdal Zoun and that the nature of the explosive was under review.
One person was killed and 12 wounded in an Israeli strike in the southern Lebanese town of Tebnine, Lebanon’s health ministry said. The Israeli military earlier told residents of the southern Lebanese village of Mansouri to evacuate – the first such order in more than a month – saying it was in response to a Hezbollah ceasefire violation.
The escalations came despite ongoing US-backed talks in Rome aimed at ending hostilities. Israel requested that yesterday’s talks with Lebanon end three hours early, a source told AFP, saying the Israeli delegation’s head had blamed alleged “misleading leaks” by the Lebanese side. But the talks are expected to resume today for a third and final day.
A Houthi military spokesperson said its latest attacks targeted the eighth and ninth Saudi oil tankers since the start of its blockade last month. Saudi authorities had no immediate comment.
Shipping traffic through the Hormuz and Bab-el-Mandeb straits – the key maritime chokepoints in the Gulf – reduced significantly yesterday from the previous day, shipping data showed.
