Qatar’s prime minister takes a Hormuz corridor proposal to Tehran

Qatar's prime minister spent Thursday in Tehran trying to put a diplomatic track back under a war that is six months old. Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, who is also foreign minister, met President Masoud Pezeshkian, Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, parliament speaker and lead negotiator Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, and Supreme National Security Council secretary Mohsen Rezaei.

Qatar's foreign ministry said the talks covered a temporary joint Iranian-Omani shipping corridor through the Strait of Hormuz and a joint project to clear mines. The same statement said the two sides discussed returning the waterway to the status it had before 28 February.

Araghchi wrote afterwards that putting diplomacy "back on track isn't impossible" if Washington dropped pressure. Rezaei told the Qatari visitor that Iran would strike U.S. military and economic interests if the United States engaged in "mischief," Iranian media reported. The White House said there were no negotiations underway because Tehran had not come to the table "in a meaningful way."

A mediator that was also a target

Qatar hosts a major U.S. base and helped broker the June ceasefire that was meant to open talks. Last month Doha accused Iran of hitting one of its gas tankers in the strait. The visit went ahead anyway.

Oman's foreign minister, Badr Albusaidi, had been in Tehran two days earlier. The Revolutionary Guards said on Wednesday that Iran and Oman had agreed in principle to administer traffic in the strait and share revenue. A senior Iranian source later said the details were still being written.

CENTCOM said this week that the traffic separation scheme itself had been cleared of Iranian mines and that U.S. forces had escorted nearly 1,500 commercial ships. Iran has exported no oil since the mid-July blockade resumed. The Qatari trip is the first public attempt in days to turn those facts into a corridor both sides might accept.