Iran will not accept a return to the arrangement that governed the Strait of Hormuz before the war with the United States and Israel, Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf said in an interview with Al Jazeera published on Wednesday. The United States rejects Iran’s terms, and on Thursday Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said two oil supertankers had been disabled in the strait.
Ghalibaf said Iran and Oman, the two coastal states, would set a new system for managing maritime traffic. He said there were no “free waters” in the strait and that the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) does not apply to it. He said Iran and Oman had reached an understanding on managing shipping routes and the traffic separation scheme, and that the United States, as a distant power, should not control the waterway. He said the main obstacle to a deal was Iran’s lack of trust in Washington.
Oman’s published statements describe negotiations and a proposed framework, not a completed agreement. The strait links the Persian Gulf to the Gulf of Oman and the Arabian Sea, with Iran to the north and Oman on the southern side. It is about 21 nautical miles, or 39 kilometres, wide at its narrowest. The International Energy Agency said in February, using 2025 data, that about 20 million barrels a day of oil and petroleum products passed through it. That is roughly 25 percent of global seaborne oil trade and about 20 percent of global liquefied natural gas trade.
About 90 percent of the oil and gas volumes were bound for Asia. Most of Qatar’s LNG exports have no comparable alternative route.
Before the war, ships followed a Traffic Separation Scheme proposed by Iran and Oman and adopted by the International Maritime Organization in 1968, which set inbound and outbound lanes. There was no general system requiring commercial ships to get Iranian permission for ordinary transit.
Ghalibaf said Iran passed seven conditions for ending the war to the United States through Qatar, which is mediating, and is awaiting an official reply. Demands include ending the war on all fronts, particularly Lebanon; an end to US attacks and threats; lifting the US naval blockade of Iranian ports; sanctions relief and permission to resume oil exports; release of frozen funds; compensation for war damage; and an end to US interference and withdrawal of additional forces from the region.
On Nov 2, Iran proposed a two-day sequence through Qatar. On the first day, the United States would lift the blockade, grant waivers for Iranian oil exports and remove newly imposed sanctions. On the second, Iran would reopen the strait. Talks on the nuclear programme and remaining issues would follow.
Washington wants the nuclear issue included from the start. Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Nov 8 called some Iranian conditions “outrageous and ridiculous”, United States had rejected the proposal. President Donald Trump said on Nov 9, after meeting Qatar’s Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, that he would hold off on new strikes for now but that the naval blockade would stay. He cited appeals from Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain, Kuwait and others against escalation.
On June 23, Ghalibaf and Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi visited Oman, and the two countries agreed to continue talks through a joint working group of their foreign ministries. They discussed navigation administration, maritime services and associated costs, and reaffirmed that Hormuz should stay secure and open for international navigation. A joint statement on Aug 25 outlined a phased plan: a temporary joint corridor, joint mine clearance, talks on a permanent corridor, information sharing, traffic management, navigation and security services, and discussions with other Gulf states.
Iran rejected an Omani proposal for regional joint management, arguing that Iran and Oman should manage their own sections without outside powers.
Articles 37 and 38 of UNCLOS give ships the right of transit passage through straits used for international navigation, which must not be impeded. Article 44 bars bordering states from hampering it. Iran signed UNCLOS in 1982 but never ratified it, and argues that the transit-passage provisions do not bind it. The United States has also not ratified the treaty but says the navigation provisions reflect customary international law. Oman is a party. Legal analysts at Chatham House and Nottingham Trent University say transit passage is customary law that applies regardless of ratification.
On Thursday, the Revolutionary Guards Navy said two oil supertankers were disabled after major explosions in the strait on Wednesday night, and that they had ignored warnings not to use an unauthorised route. The ships were not named. Earlier tanker incidents involved reports of strikes, naval mines and unidentified projectiles, according to the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations agency.
The IMO’s emergency plan to evacuate stranded vessels is paused. It evacuated 136 ships carrying about 2,900 seafarers over four days in June. The plan set a northern corridor in Iranian waters under Iran’s authority and a southern corridor in Omani waters under Oman’s, and said the 1968 scheme should not be used because of mine risk.
