The Strait of Hormuz has emerged as a renewed focus of mediation efforts to end the war between Iran and the United States, with Tehran agreeing to draw up conditions for restoring normal shipping after Qatar's prime minister urged Iran to uphold freedom of navigation.
Qatar's Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani met senior Iranian officials in Tehran on Thursday, pressing for a return to the pre-war status quo in which commercial vessels moved freely through the strategic waterway.
The visit came as Washington stepped back from direct negotiations with Tehran and shifted its focus to an economic pressure campaign.
Qatar, a US ally and Gulf neighbour of Iran, and Pakistan helped broker a June memorandum of understanding that paved the way for a ceasefire and addressed shipping through Hormuz. The narrow waterway between Iran and Oman carried about a fifth of global oil supplies before the war.
After the US and Israel launched the war six months ago, Iran threatened to strike any vessel transiting the strait without its authorisation, driving down traffic and sending up the price of oil, providing Iran with leverage in the bargain.
In his mission to Tehran on Thursday, Qatari Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani said on X that he underscored to senior Iranian officials "the importance of respecting freedom of navigation in the Strait of Hormuz in accordance with international law."
Mohsen Rezaei, secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, later said Iran was preparing a list of conditions for reopening the strait after mediators asked Tehran to set them out.
Speaking through an interpreter in an Al Manar TV interview, Rezaei said Iran had agreed with Oman on a shipping corridor through the strait, with parts of the route in Omani waters and parts in Iranian waters. Ships would use a designated central channel if the US met Iran's conditions, he said.
In the past, Iran's conditions have included an end to the US blockade on Iranian ports, compensation and removal of sanctions. It remained unclear whether Iran intended to amend those demands in a way that might be acceptable to the Americans.
Tehran and Washington have exchanged little more than bellicose statements in recent weeks, leaving the diplomacy to third parties.
So far Iran has insisted on returning to the June memorandum of understanding that established a ceasefire within a 60-day window for negotiations. But that deal quickly fell apart over differing interpretations of Iran's authority over shipping arrangements, and Trump declared the MOU was "over" three weeks after it was signed.
Iran's Revolutionary Guards said on Wednesday that Iran and Oman had agreed in principle on administering traffic in the strait and sharing revenues, but a senior Iranian source later said the two countries were still working on the details of an agreement.
Meanwhile, US military commanders say American forces have cleared sea mines from the strait that had been laid months ago by Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
"Bottom line: today, international shipping lanes are open and momentum is building," Admiral Brad Cooper, commander of the US military's Central Command, said in a video message posted on social media.
US forces have in recent months helped 1,500 commercial vessels carrying nearly 750 million barrels of crude oil to transit the strait, Cooper said.
Trump has repeatedly said the strait was open, but many vessels have opted against sailing through it because of Iranian threats, and ship tracking services have estimated activity at roughly 5% to 15% of normal volumes.
The United Nations' International Maritime Organisation has reported 70 incidents in the Strait of Hormuz since the start of the war that have killed 19 seafarers.
