Oman shelves Salalah Hormuz meeting after Saudi request

Omani Foreign Minister Sayyid Badr Albusaidi cancelled Monday's planned meeting of Gulf and Iranian officials in Salalah on Sunday night, writing on X that the session had been postponed "in the interests of consensus." No new date was set. Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei told reporters in Tehran on Monday that Saudi Arabia had asked for the delay and that Muscat and Tehran had agreed jointly.

The meeting was meant to review an Iran-Oman framework for temporary shipping lanes through the Strait of Hormuz, the 34-kilometre waterway that in peacetime carries about a third of the world's seaborne oil. Iran has kept regular tanker traffic through the strait tightly constrained since the US-Israel war on the country began in February. An Iranian official speaking to Reuters on Saturday had already said the Salalah session was unlikely to produce a signed reopening deal.

Iraq had confirmed it would send a delegation. A Gulf official told Reuters that Saudi Arabia and Qatar were due to be represented by their foreign ministers. Bahrain said in advance that it would not meet any Iranian officials. Axios and CNN reported that Riyadh had submitted amendments to the Iran-Oman text because it feared the wording would lock in a new status quo it could not accept.

Baghaei, at his weekly briefing, rejected reports that the delay was a direct response to fighting between Saudi Arabia and Yemen's Houthis. He called that reading "giving a wrong address." He added that Iran has "no relations whatsoever with what is unfolding in Yemen." Bloomberg, citing a person familiar with Saudi thinking, reported the opposite: that Riyadh's frustration over continued attacks on its territory by Iran-backed groups, including the Houthis, was part of the reason it asked for more time.

The timing is awkward for anyone trying to restore traffic. Houthis seized the Red Sea port of Mokha and Mayun island last week and, according to Yemeni government and Houthi officials on Monday, then moved fighters onto Greater Hanish and Lesser Hanish, 160 kilometres north of Bab el-Mandeb. Saudi Arabia shut its East-West pipeline after drone hits. Brent crude was trading near $107 a barrel on Monday morning in Asia and later moved above $108.

Iran's director-general for Gulf affairs, Mohammad Ali Bek, told Iranian state media that the meeting of coastal-state foreign ministers had been moved "at the request of some regional countries and by joint decision of Oman and Iran." He said Tehran would work with Muscat on a new date. Baghaei said that if the session had gone ahead it would have been "a very suitable opportunity" to present Iran's preferred management of the strait. He also said no responsible country would accept being "dictated to or subjected to pressure from any outside forces."

The United States was not invited. Talks between Washington and Tehran reached a dead end weeks ago, leaving Gulf capitals to manage their own contacts with Iran while American and Israeli operations continue. An Iranian cargo ship was struck off Qeshm Island in the strait over the weekend, according to Iranian state media. That incident sat in the same 24-hour window as the postponement notice.

Oman has spent years as the quiet channel between Tehran and its neighbours. Salalah, on the sultanate's southern coast, was chosen in part because it sits away from the Gulf's more exposed ports. Former Qatari prime minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim had publicly urged the meeting to succeed, arguing for direct GCC-Iran talks rather than messages passed through Washington.

What the Iran-Oman text actually contains has not been published. Officials who have seen drafts describe a temporary routing arrangement under which some tankers would move under Omani coordination while the wider war continues. Saudi officials, according to US reporting, want language that does not treat that arrangement as a new legal baseline for the strait. Bahrain's refusal to attend removed one of the smaller GCC voices before the session was even called off.

For shippers the practical question is simpler. Hormuz traffic has already fallen to a trickle compared with early 2026. The Red Sea alternative is now tighter after the Hanish seizures. Insurance premia on both routes remain elevated. A meeting that produced even a limited, time-bound corridor would have given charterers something to price. A meeting that does not happen leaves the same two bottlenecks in place, with Brent holding above $100 and US diesel already at a record.

Baghaei said Iran still intends to pursue the bilateral deal with Oman and will decide "how to announce or register the agreement." Oman said it remains committed to dialogue that supports stability. Neither government offered a calendar. Until they do, the strait stays a military problem dressed as a shipping one, and the Gulf states that asked for more time will have to live with the price of that request every time a cargo tries to leave the Gulf.