Iran and Oman have reached an understanding on a temporary joint maritime corridor to enable commercial shipping to resume through the Strait of Hormuz after several weeks of consultations, the Iranian armed forces’ Defa Press outlet reported Thursday.
It stressed that the agreement did not mean the immediate reopening of the strategic waterway, and Iranian officials said Wednesday that a previous agreement reached with Oman had effectively been rejected by the U.S.
Under the new proposal, vessels entering the Persian Gulf from the Gulf of Oman to the south would travel entirely through Iranian territorial waters, and part of the outbound route would also pass through Iranian waters.
The corridor would consist of two-way shipping lanes separated by approximately two nautical miles, with a total width of around seven nautical miles, including the lanes and separation.
CBS News
Defa said the route was established following technical and expert assessments by Iranian and Omani officials, with the intention being to eventually replace the temporary corridor with a permanent maritime traffic scheme following further Iran-Oman negotiations.
For Tehran, a key element of the proposal is the formal closure of the southern route through the strait, in Omani internal waters, which the U.S. has urged commercial vessels to use for the past couple months. Iran considers that route inconsistent with the memorandum of understanding signed with the U.S.
If the new arrangement is implemented, the southern route would be formally closed and the change notified to the International Maritime Organization. Iran and Oman would then negotiate a replacement for the pre-war maritime traffic separation scheme, which has been in place for about 58 years. Those negotiations could take 30 to 60 days, according to Defa.
The report stressed that the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz reamined conditional, according to Iran, on the U.S. fulfilling its commitments under the previous MoU, which called for a halt to all threats and military operations. Iran insists the U.S. must, under the terms of the currently-mothballed deal, lift its naval blockade of Iran’s ports and vessels, release frozen Iranian state funds, impose no new sanctions and refrain from increasing the U.S. military deployment in the region.
According to Defra, Iran wants those commitments to be visible and verifiable before it takes reciprocal action, including implementing the tentative agreement with Oman over control of the strait.
