Iran rejects Oman's joint oversight plan for the Strait of Hormuz and tables its own

Iran's Deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Gharibabadi said on state television on Tuesday, 28 July 2026, that Tehran had rejected Oman's proposal for joint management of the Strait of Hormuz because it did not address Iran's concerns over control of the waterway. Muscat's plan would have split the shipping route in two, 50 percent inside Iranian territorial waters and 50 percent inside Omani waters, with voluntary fees collected from vessels, a design modelled on the Strait of Malacca arrangement.

Gharibabadi said Iran's counterproposal would place one route entirely within Iranian territorial waters, with part of the second route also passing through Iranian waters so that Tehran could oversee both inbound and outbound traffic. He warned that the strait would remain closed if Oman rejected the plan, and said a return to the pre-war situation, with ships passing without paying any fee, was not acceptable.

Before the war, about one fifth of the world's oil and LNG moved through the route. According to Al Jazeera, the Malacca voluntary scheme raises roughly $70 million a year, while the figure Tehran has reportedly floated as a "service fee" is $1 million per vessel. Al Jazeera also reported that Muscat is now weighing a further plan with three lanes: one in Iranian waters, one international lane and one in Omani waters.