A planned meeting between Iran and several Gulf nations to discuss creating a temporary shipping lane through the Strait of Hormuz has been postponed, Oman's foreign minister announced Sunday, September 13 — just a day before the talks were set to take place in Salalah, Oman.
What Oman Said
Omani Foreign Minister Badr Albusaidi announced the postponement in a post on X: "In the interests of consensus the regional meeting set for tomorrow in Salalah has been postponed." He added: "We remain committed to fostering dialogue that supports stability and lasting cooperation in our region," without offering further details on next steps or a rescheduled date.
Who Was Supposed to Attend
According to CNN, Gulf diplomats and Iranian officials were set to meet Monday to discuss an Omani plan for reopening the Strait of Hormuz to regular tanker traffic — a conversation that notably would have happened without the United States at the table. Iraq had confirmed it would send a delegation, and a Gulf official told Reuters that Saudi Arabia and Qatar would be represented by their foreign ministers. Not every country planned to participate, however: Bahrain said it would not meet with any Iranians at all.
Why It Was Postponed
Accounts of the reasoning differ slightly by source. Iranian officials, speaking to the Jerusalem Post, said the meeting was postponed at the request of some regional countries, in a decision jointly made by Tehran and Muscat. A senior Iranian official had told Reuters on Saturday that officials planned to discuss Hormuz and other issues at the meeting, but cautioned it would probably not yield a signed agreement to reopen the strait even if it had gone ahead.
What Was on the Table
According to CNN, sources familiar with the plans said the possibility of Iranian tolls on ships transiting the strait remains widely rejected among Gulf states, though there was some willingness to consider voluntary contributions for directing safe passage through the waterway. The Omani legal framework under discussion reportedly includes a system of voluntary payment for navigational safety and environmental protection services.
Trump's Position: Refocus on the Nuclear Issue
Adding a further wrinkle, Trump administration officials have privately told Gulf region contacts that they want to refocus any future US-Iran negotiations on Tehran's nuclear program rather than on reopening the strait specifically, according to three sources familiar with the matter. President Donald Trump reinforced that arm's-length posture in a Truth Social post Tuesday night, writing: "I'm not trying to force Iran to the bargaining table" — comments that came after Iran retaliated following a prior US strike. Despite depressed shipping traffic through the strait, Trump has separately insisted the waterway's current state is "acceptable for now," with the US military escorting oil tankers through the corridor in the meantime.
Iran's Continued Hardline Stance
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, in an interview with the pan-Arab outlet Al-Arabi Al-Jadeed, said that even with an agreement with Oman, Iran would not reopen the strait until the United States satisfies Tehran's broader demands — a position that suggests any Oman-brokered technical arrangement was always going to fall short of a full resolution, regardless of whether Monday's meeting had proceeded.
A Longer Pattern of Oman-Mediated Talks
This postponement continues a months-long pattern of incremental, often inconclusive Oman-Iran engagement on the strait. As far back as April, Oman and Iran held deputy foreign minister-level talks focused on ensuring "smooth passage" through Hormuz, with both sides presenting "a number of visions and proposals" that were to be studied further — talks that, five months later, still hadn't produced a durable framework, as this weekend's postponed meeting illustrates.
What This Reveals About the Region's Unwillingness to Act Alone
CNN's reporting noted that the scheduled meeting — even before its postponement — would have underscored something notable: despite active efforts to develop alternative shipping corridors around the strait, countries in the region remain unwilling to fully commit to a Hormuz solution without broader consensus or continued US alignment on the issue.
What's Next
With the meeting indefinitely postponed and no rescheduled date announced, the path toward any regional resolution on the Strait of Hormuz remains unclear — particularly as Washington signals it wants future negotiations to prioritize Iran's nuclear program over the shipping lane dispute specifically. For continuing live coverage, see the full Al Jazeera live coverage.