Iran-Oman discuss Hormuz shipping as threats test fragile interim war deal

Iran and Oman held talks on keeping the Strait of Hormuz open after recent ship attacks. The engagement underlined how a fragile interim deal is being strained by fresh US-Iran threats.

In Short

• Oman said both sides will continue technical and political maritime discussions
• Iran sought mechanisms to ensure ships pass safely through contested waters
• Washington ended crude waivers after attacks, prompting Tehran to demand mutual compliance

Iran and Oman on Saturday discussed the Strait of Hormuz after days of Iranian attacks on ships and US retaliation, developments that have hit the interim deal meant to end the war. Oman said both sides agreed to continue talks on the vital waterway "at the technical and political levels".

The meeting came as Iran's new supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, issued his first statement since the funeral of his father, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was killed in the war's opening strikes on February 28. Still unseen since the war began, he said Iranians would avenge the killing, saying such revenge "is the will of our nation and must certainly be carried out".

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said he met his Omani counterpart to discuss "appropriate mechanisms for ensuring the safe passage of ships". The talks came a day after the United States asked Iran to publicly state that the waterway is open and that ships would not be attacked.

For decades, the world has treated the strait as an international waterway. Iran, however, has said since the war began that the passage should remain under its control and that it should be allowed to charge ships using it. The US has urged mariners to take a southern route through Oman's territorial waters. Before the war, about a fifth of traded oil and natural gas passed through the strait. Iran's control of it during the conflict triggered a global energy crisis, though oil prices have since fallen sharply from wartime highs of USD 120 a barrel.

Araghchi also accused Washington of breaching the interim deal after it ended waivers that had allowed Iran to sell crude oil on the open market in US dollars. The US withdrew the waivers in response to the attacks on ships in the strait. "Reality check: There can only be mutual compliance," Araghchi wrote on X.

US President Donald Trump, meanwhile, said he was responding to threats "to assassinate, or attempt to assassinate" him. Overnight, he wrote on social media that a thousand "missiles are Locked and Loaded and aimed at the Islamic Republic of Iran, with thousands more to immediately follow, should the Iranian Government act on its threat". During Khamenei's funeral, mourners held posters and banners calling for Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to be killed.

Trump has said the ceasefire is over, though he added that the US would continue negotiations. US officials, speaking on condition of anonymity on Friday, said the renewed strikes in recent days followed what they described as an attempt by a rogue faction of Iranian hardliners to sabotage the ceasefire. Iran has maintained that its theocracy remains united under the new supreme leader.

After the US completed its latest strikes on Thursday, more attacks were reported inside Iran, raising questions over who else may be targeting the country. Israel did not claim responsibility, raising the possibility that Gulf Arab states may have carried them out to deter Iran from attacking them again. Iran had earlier retaliated for US strikes by targeting Bahrain, Jordan, Kuwait and Qatar. Iranian Health Ministry spokesperson Hossein Kermanpour said the strikes inside Iran over two days killed at least 17 people and wounded 115 others.

The developments left the Strait of Hormuz, the interim war deal and the wider regional confrontation under fresh strain, with Iran and Oman agreeing to keep talking even as Tehran and Washington exchanged new accusations and threats.

With PTI Inputs

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