Dubai: Oman has submitted to Iran a Gulf-backed plan to manage the Strait of Hormuz, including charging fees for voluntary use of the strait, a Gulf source and a Western diplomat told Reuters on Tuesday. A senior Iranian source told Reuters that Tehran has yet to respond to Oman’s proposal, which is intended as a basis for ending trade disruptions in the strait caused by the U.S.-Israeli war against Iran.President Donald Trump abruptly canceled a two-week U.S. bombing campaign over the weekend in the latest about-face in strategy, saying “good negotiations” were underway with Iran but threatening to restart attacks unless talks bear fruit. Iran denies seeking to resume talks with the United States. Washington launched a new bombing campaign earlier this month to break Iran’s control of the strait.After the U.S. and Israeli attacks on February 28, Iran effectively closed the strait to ships other than its own. An agreement between the United States and Iran last month partially reopened the strait, but the agreement collapsed in early July after Iran opened fire on ships using the passage it did not approve.Iran has said it wants to manage the strait with Oman, which controls the other side, and charge service fees to ships using the strait. Washington wants a return to the prewar status quo, when ships could pass freely without paying, and says imposing mandatory fees is illegal.Gulf sources and Western diplomats familiar with the matter told Reuters that under Oman’s proposal Iran would not exercise sole control and the fee would be voluntary. The system is similar to that in the Malacca Strait in Asia, where Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore require voluntary contributions from ships to fund navigation, environmental protection and search and rescue operations.The Western diplomat compared it to a voluntary carbon tax on flights, where anyone buying a ticket would have the option to tick a box if they wanted to pay to offset emissions. Foreign ministers from the Gulf Cooperation Council met via video call on Tuesday to discuss the latest developments in the conflict, including how to strengthen cooperation on issues related to the freedom and safety of vessels in the waterway, Qatar’s foreign ministry said in a statement.Iran’s joint military command once again rejected Trump’s plan to use frozen Iranian assets to pay for ship losses, state media reported. Any country or company that accepts such payments will be denied passage through the Strait of Hormuz by Iran’s armed forces, the statement said.(Reuters)
