Daijiworld Media Network - Tehran
Tehran, Aug 3: Iran and Oman are negotiating a temporary shipping route through the Strait of Hormuz to ensure safe navigation, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei said on Monday.
Baghaei said the talks are focused on creating an intermediate route combining the southern passage through Oman's waters and the northern passage through Iran's territorial waters.
"The negotiations have been focused on the idea that the southern route, which passes through Oman's waters, and the northern route, which passes through Iran's territorial waters, would turn into an intermediate route," he said at a weekly press conference in Tehran.
He clarified that the discussions concern a round-trip corridor rather than multiple separate routes. The temporary arrangement would remain in place until a permanent route is finalised.
Baghaei said the current situation in the waterway was not due to differences between Iran and Oman, but attributed it to what he described as US-Israeli "military aggression" against Iran. He added that the status of the Strait of Hormuz would remain unchanged as long as Washington continued what he called "malicious" actions against Tehran.
Iranian Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi had earlier said that negotiations with Oman were in their final stages during a cabinet meeting on Sunday, according to state news agency IRNA.
Meanwhile, Baghaei said Iran would take necessary measures to hold Ukraine accountable over what Tehran described as a recent attack on an Iranian vessel. On July 25, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Ukrainian forces had targeted a Russian warship and vessels allegedly used for transporting Iran-linked military cargo in the Caspian Sea.
The developments came as US President Donald Trump said negotiations with Iran would begin on Monday, claiming that Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Qatar had urged Washington to cancel planned strikes as they believed a deal could be reached.
"There’s a deal on the Strait of Hormuz, and then there will be a deal on the nuclear, or you might call it the denuclearisation of Iran," Trump told reporters.
A US official told Axios that Saudi Crown Prince and Prime Minister Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud had spoken with Trump on Saturday and expressed concern while seeking clarity on the proposed plan of action against Iran.