Iran FM in Oman as fight over Hormuz shipping threatens ceasefire
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi arrived in Oman on Saturday for talks on the Strait of Hormuz and efforts to prevent the renewed US-Iran confrontation from widening.
The latest escalation followed attacks on three commercial vessels using the shipping lane on the Omani side of the Strait of Hormuz. Washington blamed Iranian forces and struck Iranian coastal and naval targets. Tehran disputed responsibility but warned that ships using routes not coordinated with it faced danger.
After the June ceasefire, commercial vessels increasingly used an Oman-backed southern corridor rather than Iran-designated routes.
The shift angered hardliners who feared it could weaken the Islamic Republic’s claim to control shipping through the strait.
The roughly 167-km waterway separates Iran from Oman’s Musandam Peninsula. At its narrowest it is about 54 km wide, with Iranian and Omani territorial waters covering the passage.
The established two-mile shipping lanes run mainly through Omani waters, but international law protects transit through straits used for global navigation.
The IRGC-affiliated Fars News agency called for Iranian strikes on the ports of Haifa in Israel and Jebel Ali in the United Arab Emirates in response to a US attack on a railway bridge in northern Iran.
Fars described the strike on the the Aq Tekeh Khan railway bridge near Aqqala in Golestan province as part of a “war of corridors,” referring to competition over strategic transport and trade routes.
“We must target Haifa and Jebel Ali,” the agency wrote.
The hardline Kayhan newspaper separately called for missile strikes on the King Fahd Causeway, which links Saudi Arabia and Bahrain, and on regional oil refineries.
“When the Aqqala bridge is targeted, the King Fahd Causeway should be targeted without prior warning,” Kayhan wrote. “If our refineries are attacked, their refineries should be attacked.”
Kayhan argued that countries hosting US forces should not be treated as independent actors if attacks on Iran were launched from their territory, saying that striking them would amount to striking the United States and Israel.
