World News
Iran says an agreement with Oman would divide Hormuz revenues and keep warships out
By Staff Writer | 28 August 2026
The Revolutionary Guards say shares of the water and of the revenue have been settled with Muscat. Tehran still says the strait does not fully reopen until Washington lifts the blockade.
Iran's Revolutionary Guards said on Wednesday that Tehran and Oman had reached agreements on each country's share of the waters of the Strait of Hormuz, and on each country's share of the revenue earned from it, as the two states worked on a temporary framework to restore commercial shipping through the waterway.
During negotiations with Oman, some agreements were made regarding each country's share of the waters of the Strait and Iran's and Oman's shares of its revenues
Hossein Mohebi, spokesman for Iran's Revolutionary Guards
The statement came a day after the foreign ministers of the two countries met in Tehran to discuss a transit corridor through the strait and a project to clear mines from it.
Kazem Gharibabadi, Iran's deputy foreign minister, said separately that any agreement with Oman would exclude military vessels. Under the arrangement he described to state television late on Tuesday, commercial vessels entering the Arabian Gulf would pass through Iranian waters, while outbound ships would follow a route running partly through Iranian and partly through Omani waters. He said the routes would be temporary and that the two governments would then have 30 to 60 days in which to discuss a permanent traffic plan. Tehran has said the geographical coordinates of the route are already agreed.
What has not been agreed
The charge. Tehran wants ships to pay for passage, and Washington has rejected the proposal outright. Iranian officials continue to tie a full reopening to conditions on the United States: lifting the naval blockade, removing oil sanctions and releasing frozen Iranian assets held abroad. The Guards' spokesman also accused the United States of obstructing the work of completing the agreement with Muscat.
Iran has kept the strait closed since the war with the United States began on 28 February. In normal conditions it carries about a fifth of the world's oil and liquefied natural gas exports. Washington has answered with a naval counter blockade on Iranian ports and has threatened further sanctions. Qatar's prime minister was expected in Tehran on Thursday for talks intended to lower tension, and those talks were also expected to cover freedom of navigation through the strait.
Two different things are being negotiated at the same time and they are not interchangeable. A technical corridor agreed with Muscat would move cargo under a temporary arrangement with a stated review period of 30 to 60 days. A full reopening is being treated by Tehran as one term of a wider settlement with Washington. Anyone pricing carriage, war risk cover or a delivery date through the strait is pricing the first of those without the second.
On the Iranian account the coordinates exist, the revenue split exists and the exclusion of warships exists. What does not exist, on any account from either side, is a date.