Iran and Oman finalized an agreement Wednesday on what Tehran calls the geographic coordinates of a proposed shipping route through the Strait of Hormuz, Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei said. [1] He said the two countries were preparing a joint statement covering technical, legal, security, and environmental points, provided third parties did not obstruct the process. He named the United States as that third party. [1]
The paper's Wednesday lead recorded that the Hormuz draft split on Khamenei approval. Thursday's completed record is Tehran selling coordinates while four industry sources told Reuters the deal is not feasible. [2]
Baghaei said the Iran-Oman text cannot guarantee safety while a U.S. naval blockade remains. Iranian media said reopening depends on Washington ending that blockade and "correcting violations," and that the Oman talks "have nothing to do with the United States." [1] Trump told Fox the United States is part of the talks, which are "moving along very nicely," and that the strait opens soon or they get hit hard. [1]
Iranian state television described a "middle corridor" controlled by Iran and Oman. [1] IRGC-affiliated media said ships would enter through Iranian waters and exit through Omani waters for a period, then use a central route with Iran managing entrances. [3] Those diagrams are not a published coordinate list. They are competing maps of control.
A reader who only hears Tehran will book a hull. A reader who only hears owners will wait. The paper prints both sentences and the missing joint statement.
Baghaei's "third parties" line is how Tehran keeps Washington off the letterhead while Trump keeps Washington in the interview. [1] Both men can be speaking about the same unsigned page. Only one of them will be believed by a charterer. Thursday's charterers, through Reuters, said the page cannot be paid. [2]
The June memorandum still sits under this file as the document Tehran says the Oman talks implement and Washington says it is still in. [1] A leaked 14-point draft is not a published coordinate list. Baghaei promised a joint statement. Thursday did not produce one the paper can quote. The paper will not invent the statement to close the gap.
Danny Citrinowicz, former head of Israeli military intelligence research, wrote that restoring Hormuz to its pre-crisis status would have required regime change or a sustained military occupation of the waterway, and that neither was acceptable in Washington. [1] That is an Israeli analyst's sentence, not a booking note. It explains why a "middle corridor" is the least-desired option still on the table. It does not make the corridor insurable.
Hormuz carried roughly a quarter of seaborne oil before February's strikes closed the habit. [1] Euronews filed Tehran's announcement on Wednesday; Thursday's owners answered. The paper will not collapse those two days into one adjective. Coordinates without a joint statement, a statement without a fee table, a fee table that voids cover: that is the sequence. Baghaei is still on the first step. [1]
Iranian media's insistence that Oman talks have nothing to do with the United States is itself a tell. [1] Technical is the word a foreign ministry uses when it wants a map without a White House. Political is the word Trump uses when he wants a first phase. Both words describe the same unsigned page. Owners, on Thursday, described it as not feasible. [2]
-- YOSEF STERN, Jerusalem