Iran, Oman Agree to Share Strait of Hormuz Revenue

Iran’s military said it reached a revenue-sharing agreement with Oman on the Strait of Hormuz, as the two sides push for a wider deal on the management of the crucial waterway.

“Agreements have been reached regarding each country’s share of the strait’s waters as well as Iran and Oman’s share of its revenues,” the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ spokesman Hossein Mohebbi said on Wednesday, according to the state-run Sepah News agency.

“The US is obstructing this process, causing progress to be delayed,” he said, without elaborating.

The comments by the IRGC go further than a joint statement issued by the two countries’ foreign ministries on Tuesday, which said they discussed an “interim framework” for resuming ship transits but stopped short of announcing a final deal and didn’t mention fees.

Neither country’s foreign ministry immediately responded to a request for comment.

Iranian officials have repeatedly warned that a deal with Oman on the strait’s navigation would not equate to an immediate re-opening of the waterway that served as a conduit for a fifth of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas before the war.

Tehran has said any normalization of traffic would hinge on the US complying with the terms of a memorandum of understanding signed in June, including lifting sanctions and a naval blockade on its ports, as well as unfreezing Iranian assets abroad — none of which the US has signaled it’s ready to do.

The 60-day interim deal that lapsed earlier this month suffered repeated breaches from early on as the US and Iran clashed over control of Hormuz. An agreement to ease traffic through the chokepoint would likely help pave the way for a resumption of talks on a more permanent end to the conflict.

Iran started charging some vessels transit fees in the early weeks of the conflict, according to people familiar with the matter, but later pivoted to framing charges as service fees.

Oman told the United Nations’ shipping agency in July that it opposes the imposition of transit fees in the strait, but has privately warned some European officials that vessels may have to pay for related services, Bloomberg reported in June.

The Strait of Hormuz has remained largely closed since the US and Israel launched the war against Iran on February 28, although some vessels are still making the crossing. Millions of barrels a day of crude are escaping the waterway, although attacks on vessels have continued.

Photograph: Ships anchored in the Strait of Hormuz near Larak Island, Iran; photo credit: Majid Saeedi/Getty Images