Iran says Strait of Hormuz deal with Oman just days away

Eltaf Najafizada and Alex Longley, Bloomberg News on Sep 7, 2026

By clicking submit, I authorize Arcamax and its affiliates to: (1) use, sell, and share my information for marketing purposes, including cross-context behavioral advertising, as described in our Privacy Policy , (2) add to information that I provide with other information like interests inferred from web page views, or data lawfully obtained from data brokers, such as past purchase or location data, or publicly available data, (3) contact me or enable others to contact me by email or other means with offers for different types of goods and services, and (4) retain my information while I am engaging with marketing messages that I receive and for a reasonable amount of time thereafter. I understand I can opt out at any time through an email that I receive, or by clicking here

Iran said a deal with Oman to manage shipping through the Strait of Hormuz is imminent, a move that could tighten Tehran’s control over the waterway and raise questions over how the U.S. would respond.

The agreement, which the two countries have been negotiating for several weeks, is in the final stages and will include details on a temporary safe route through the crucial transit point for energy supplies, Esmail Baghaei, spokesman for the Iran’s Foreign Ministry, told reporters in Tehran on Monday.

Describing it as an “understanding,” he said it would be documented with the International Maritime Organization, a United Nations body responsible for shipping globally. “The talks have made very good progress,” Baghaei said, adding that he hoped there would not be interference from third parties, which he didn’t name.

Oil prices briefly pared gains on the news, on optimism an Iran-Oman accord will help get more tankers and other commercial vessels through the chokepoint and reduce the likelihood of strikes on shipping from Tehran. Brent crude traded slightly higher at almost $97 a barrel by 12 p.m. London, having traded earlier in the day at $97.93.

Analysts at Macquarie said on Monday that they are seeing about 7 million barrels a day of crude and refined fuels crossing Hormuz, citing conversations with clients. That compares with about 20 million before the war began. They added that a narrow cadre of shipowners are willing to cross Hormuz for the right price, enabling the transit of substantial volumes of oil.

News of the potential Iran-Oman accord came after Iranian claims over the weekend that it attacked three ships taking an unauthorized route and three-U.S. linked vessels elsewhere. Bloomberg couldn’t immediately verify those claims and people involved in transits through the strait said they saw no evidence of major incidents from Iranian attacks over the past few days.

The U.S. military had earlier said it struck three Iranian crude tankers, one of which was destroyed, in response to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps targeting two U.S. Navy warships with ballistic missiles.

Saudi Aramco’s Jazan oil facilities on the Red Sea have been hit and the damage is being assessed, the Financial Times reported Monday, citing people familiar with the matter. Storage tanks at the site have previously been targeted by Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi militants.

Iran and Oman have been looking to formalizing control of the strait, which they both border, and are likely to look to charge service fees. The U.S., which is blockading Iranian ports to prevent oil exports from the Islamic Republic, wants the waterway to revert to its pre-war status of being free to use.

Iran effectively closed the strait after the U.S. and Israel began strikes at the end of February. All talks aimed at resolving the conflict have so far failed, producing an uneasy stalemate featuring occasional rounds of tit-for-tat strikes.

The war, now into its seventh month, has pushed up oil, fuel and natural gas prices and threatened to stoke global inflation. U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration has been under pressure to end the conflict, which has sent U.S. retail diesel to a record high and put Republicans at risk of losing control of Congress in November’s midterm elections.

—With assistance from Alaric Nightingale.