Iran-Arab Dialogue on Hormuz Strait Stalls as Salalah Summit Collapses

Tehran, Iran – A planned meeting between Iran and Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states to discuss temporary shipping corridors through the Strait of Hormuz has been postponed, dealing a setback to diplomatic efforts aimed at easing maritime tensions in the strategic waterway.

Officials from Iran, Iraq, and GCC member states – excluding Bahrain, which objected – were due to convene in Oman’s port city of Salalah on Monday to negotiate new temporary routes amid the escalating standoff between Iran and the United States.

The meeting was postponed on Sunday night without a rescheduled date. While no stakeholder publicly linked the delay to recent Houthi and Iraqi militia strikes on Saudi territory, Iran’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs cited Saudi objections as the cause, without elaborating.

US outlets Axios and CNN reported that Saudi Arabia had proposed amendments to the Iran-Oman Hormuz proposal, fearing the wording could entrench a new status quo unacceptable to Riyadh.

The delay follows Saudi Arabia’s shutdown of its critical East-West oil pipeline after drone attacks originating from Iraq, which US President Donald Trump attributed to Tehran. Saudi Arabia has also endured repeated Houthi missile and drone strikes, particularly after the Houthis seized Yemen’s Red Sea coast.

Hours after the postponement, Saudi civil defence issued alerts for Abha, Khamis Mushait, Jazan, and Najran. The Houthis claimed to have launched dozens of ballistic missiles and drones at military facilities in Khamis Mushait, in retaliation for Saudi-led air strikes in Yemen.

What comes next?

Iran has stated it will engage the United States on Hormuz and the broader conflict only if Washington takes tangible steps to lift its naval blockade and return to the June memorandum of understanding.

Despite ongoing disruptions to vessel passage, Iran has signalled it intends to press ahead with the bilateral agreement with Oman, reportedly finalised last month.

“In consultation with Oman, in the next step, we will make a decision on how to announce or register the agreement,” Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei told reporters at a weekly news conference on Monday.

When the bilateral deal was first advanced, Trump threatened to bomb Oman if it interfered with US-Iran talks.

Ali Vaez, deputy director of the Middle East and North Africa programme at the International Crisis Group, told Al Jazeera that Tehran seeks to leverage Hormuz for regional legitimacy and to pressure Washington.

“The broader the regional buy-in, the harder it becomes for the US to dismiss the arrangement as an Iranian diktat,” he said.

GCC states, reeling from sharply reduced energy revenues, want shipping routes restored and their economies insulated from a war they did not start. But Vaez said Washington is unlikely to lift the blockade on Iran even if the region endorses a Muscat-Tehran arrangement.

“[The US] will find it much harder to sustain a policy that its own partners increasingly see as perpetuating the crisis,” Vaez added.

Temporary entry and exit

The proposed Omani-Iranian agreement envisions temporary entry and exit routes for commercial vessels through the strait, with Tehran emphasising that this would not amount to a reopening of the Strait of Hormuz.

Iran and Oman are the only countries with territorial waters in the Strait of Hormuz. The proposed inbound corridor would run primarily through Iranian waters, while the outbound corridor would mostly pass through Omani waters, with small segments in Iranian territory.

During the planned Salalah meeting, Iran and Oman were to share precise maps and route details with GCC members Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Qatar, and Kuwait, along with Iraq. The deal could also include voluntary tolls to fund navigation safety, environmental protection, and search-and-rescue operations.

Bahrain, which has borne the brunt of Iranian strikes since the US-Israel conflict with Iran began in late February, refused to participate, calling it “appeasement.” Iran’s Tasnim news agency, linked to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, claimed Israel pressured Bahrain to withdraw.

How does Yemen fit in this picture?

The latest diplomatic developments follow days of rapid escalation in Yemen, where the Houthis, formally known as Ansar Allah, seized control of the Bab al-Mandeb strait and much of the Red Sea coast after a swift offensive against government forces.

Thomas Juneau, assistant professor at the University of Ottawa’s Graduate School of Public and International Affairs, said the Houthi advances represent a significant strategic gain for Iran, giving Tehran a new bargaining chip in future negotiations with Washington.

“The Houthis are not a simple arm of Iranian foreign policy. They operate largely based on their own interests and do not simply execute Iranian commands,” he told Al Jazeera. “But Houthi and Iranian interests are largely, if not always fully, aligned, and they cooperate closely on that basis.”

Juneau noted that the ability of Iran and the Houthis to partially block traffic at both the Strait of Hormuz and Bab al-Mandeb – two of the world’s most critical maritime chokepoints – would give them enormous influence over the global economy and, by extension, the United States.

The Houthis are attempting to “institutionalise the de facto reality of their veto on maritime traffic” in the southern Red Sea, mirroring Iran’s partial stranglehold on Hormuz, Juneau said.

Iran has stressed that its allies’ gains in the Red Sea cannot be separated from the Saudi-led blockade and military campaign in Yemen that began in 2015.

“We know very well that continued war between Islamic countries in the region only has one winner, and that winner is no one but the Zionist regime, which is after persisting tensions and conflict in our region and between Islamic countries,” Iranian spokesperson Baghaei said.

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