Tehran:
Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi arrived in Muscat at the head of a diplomatic delegation for talks on arrangements for the administration of the Strait of Hormuz, regional developments, and bilateral relations.
Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei said on Friday that the visit follows a series of consultations launched over the past two months with Oman regarding the Strait of Hormuz, describing the waterway as one of the key issues addressed in the memorandum of understanding (MoU) that ended the recent war.
Baghaei noted that under the agreement, Iran assumed a clear responsibility for helping to establish normal operational arrangements in the Strait of Hormuz, including the provision of maritime services for commercial shipping.
He stressed that Tehran remains firmly committed to fulfilling those obligations.
In line with the MoU, Iran and Oman agreed to coordinate closely on the implementation of these arrangements.
The visit “will be focused on the Strait of Hormuz and shipping safety” and is “a continuation of the consultations that we started with Oman over the past one or two months,” Iran’s official IRNA news agency quoted foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei as saying.
The strait is a major source of contention between Washington and Tehran, which effectively closed the strategic waterway in response to the war launched by the United States and Israel in late February.
The conflict was subsequently halted by a ceasefire agreement on April 8, but there have been sporadic outbursts of violence ever since, most sparked by disagreements over the strait.
Tehran insists it must control the waterway, a conduit for a fifth of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas, and has expressed a desire to charge fees for ships that transit it.
It did not have such powers before the war, and while the strait comprises Omani and Iranian territorial waters, under international law the two cannot generally block passage or charge tolls.
Several rounds of technical meetings have already been held in both Tehran and Muscat, and Araghchi’s visit is intended to advance those discussions and facilitate the safe passage of vessels through the strategic waterway.
The visit comes after an Iranian technical and expert delegation, headed by Deputy Foreign Minister for Legal and International Affairs Kazem Gharibabadi, held trilateral meetings in Doha on July 1 with Qatari and Pakistani mediators to advance the implementation of the Islamabad memorandum aimed at ending the war.
