Oman shelves the Salalah Hormuz talks after Riyadh asks for time

Oman postponed the Salalah meeting that was supposed to bring Iran, Iraq and most Gulf Cooperation Council states to the table on Monday to discuss temporary shipping routes through the Strait of Hormuz. Omani Foreign Minister Sayyid Badr Albusaidi said the delay was in the interests of consensus. The Oman News Agency added that conditions were not in place for a constructive dialogue.

Iran's Foreign Ministry said Saudi Arabia asked for the postponement. Ministry language on Monday called the Saudi request, and the attempt to tie it to events in Yemen, a diversion from the root causes of this crisis. Mohammad Ali Bak, Iran's director general for Gulf affairs, told Irna that Tehran and Muscat had jointly agreed to find another date. Bahrain had already said it would not sit with any Iranian officials until diplomatic ties were restored.

The meeting was never billed as a reopening of the strait. A senior Iranian official told Reuters on Saturday that no signed deal to free the waterway was likely. What was on the table was an Iran-Oman framework, discussed for weeks, under which Iran would have a say over which ships enter the Persian Gulf and might charge fees. GCC states want free passage. Some of them have signalled they could live with a temporary arrangement that falls short of that if traffic actually moves.

Hormuz has been under an Iranian blockade, later matched by a United States blockade, since 28 February, when American and Israeli strikes on Iran opened the wider war. In ordinary years the strait carries about a fifth of seaborne oil and a large share of liquefied natural gas. The war shifted Saudi barrels toward the Red Sea. That second door is now under pressure from Houthi gains around Bab el-Mandeb, including the seizure of Greater and Lesser Hanish.

Two other incidents landed in the same 48 hours. An Iranian cargo ship was hit near Qeshm Island in the Strait of Hormuz on Sunday, killing one person. Drone strikes launched from Iraq hit Saudi Arabia's East-West Pipeline, a seven-million-barrel-a-day artery built precisely so Riyadh can avoid Hormuz. The line was shut. Axios and CNN reported that Saudi Arabia had also tabled amendments to the Iran-Oman text because it feared the wording would lock in a new status quo Riyadh could not accept.

Iran says it will keep working the bilateral track with Oman. Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei told reporters on Monday that, in consultation with Oman, Tehran would decide how to announce or register the agreement. That is a different path from a GCC-wide blessing. It leaves Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Qatar outside a deal that would still sit on the water they use.

Oil markets have already treated the delay as confirmation that the strait stays tight. Brent has printed above $108 a barrel. Diesel in the United States set a record near $6.20 a gallon over the weekend. President Donald Trump, speaking in Ireland, told Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to stop hitting Russian diesel plants and said the Middle East war was not the only reason for the spike. Those two shortages now sit on the same price.

Iraq had said it would send a delegation. A Gulf official had told Reuters that Saudi Arabia and Qatar would be represented by their foreign ministers. None of that happened. Oman, which has spent years as the quiet channel between Tehran and its neighbours, is left holding a date that does not exist.

The practical question is whether any ship that wants to use Hormuz can get a permit that insurers will honour. Iran already requires permission. A fee mechanism has been discussed. Without a regional text, that system remains an Iranian decision enforced by Iranian and American guns. Cargo owners will keep sending hulls the long way around Africa or waiting in the Gulf of Oman.

Baghaei's line about registering the Oman deal matters. If Tehran files a bilateral text and treats it as the rule of the strait, Riyadh's postponement will have produced the outcome it said it wanted to avoid: an Iran-written shipping regime with no Gulf consensus behind it. If Oman refuses to register anything until the others return, the waterway stays closed and the price of the delay is paid in diesel and delayed cargoes.

No new date was announced on Monday. Bahrain's boycott stands. Saudi amendments have not been published. The East-West Pipeline is shut. Qeshm Island has a damaged cargo ship. That is the file the region was supposed to tidy in Salalah, and did not.