Iran and Oman have agreed on the precise map coordinates of designated "safe" lanes for ships entering and leaving the Strait of Hormuz, Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei said on Wednesday, according to the state news agency IRNA as reported by Iran International and Gulf News. The two countries also settled how they will pass those coordinates to the relevant international maritime body, which Baghaei told Iranian media would happen soon.
What the agreement does, and doesn't, do
The announcement is the latest step in a framework the two neighbors began in August. Gulf News reported that Oman said on Aug. 25 that the countries had agreed to set up a temporary navigational corridor, clear mines and work toward a permanent route with traffic management and information sharing. A day later, Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Gharibabadi described the temporary route as seven miles wide, with its entrance and part of its exit running through Iranian waters.
Gulf News cautioned that fixing the coordinates does not by itself mean the strait is open or that commercial ships are guaranteed safe passage. Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian has tied any reopening to the United States meeting commitments under what Tehran calls the Islamabad memorandum.
Baghaei also said Iran had laid out its conditions for ending the war "on all fronts" and would answer U.S. proposals through mediators, Mehr News Agency reported.
Mixed signals from Tehran
The diplomatic step came the same day Iran signaled it would tighten its grip on the waterway. Mohammadreza Naqdi, an adviser to the commander of the Revolutionary Guards, told the Fars news agency that "the Strait of Hormuz is closed," and that routes Iran considers illegal, including a southern path hugging Oman's coast, would soon be shut, The Guardian reported. He said those passages had been used by small boats smuggling oil to tankers.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio disputed Iran's account on Wednesday, saying Iran had "lost complete control" of the strait and that nearly as much oil is now flowing out as before the war, according to The Guardian. Iran International, citing the analytics firm Kpler, reported that Middle Eastern crude exports climbed above prewar levels on several days in late September, but that the cost of moving it has soared, with freight now making up roughly a quarter of the value of crude shipped from the Gulf to China, compared with about 5% before the conflict.
Why it matters
Before the war began on Feb. 28, about a fifth of the world's oil and liquefied natural gas passed through Hormuz, The Guardian noted. Attacks on tankers around the strait reached their highest weekly level of the war in the week to Oct. 5, and Brent crude rose above $100 a barrel on Wednesday, a market swing that has left Americans grappling with high gas and diesel prices, The Guardian reported.