Iran is now pulling Oman into the center of the Strait of Hormuz standoff. Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Friday that Tehran is coordinating with Muscat on the future management of the waterway, including Iran’s plan to charge commercial ships for passage, according to The Guardian.
That is a sharper and more legally sensitive angle than earlier toll threats. Oman controls the southern side of the strait through its Musandam exclave, while Iran controls the northern side. Araghchi described Hormuz as an Iranian-Omani waterway with “no international waters in between.” Oman has not publicly endorsed Iran’s proposal.
The new claim matters because the waterway is not just another shipping lane. Before the war, roughly one-fifth of global oil and liquefied natural gas moved through the Strait of Hormuz. Iran’s restrictions, the U.S. counterblockade on Iranian ports, and recent attacks around the Gulf have already stranded ships, raised insurance costs, and pushed governments to search for alternate export routes.
What Iran says it wants
Tehran has created a new Persian Gulf Strait Authority, or PGSA, to manage traffic through the strait. The Guardian reported that the body is requiring ships to register by email for routing information and permission to pass. Payment would be made in Iran’s national currency, with fees reportedly being discussed at roughly $1 per barrel.
Iran frames the plan as a sovereign management system for a waterway it says falls inside Iranian and Omani territorial waters. Araghchi has also said commercial ships may use the strait if they cooperate with Iranian naval forces.
Al Jazeera reported that Iranian officials are asking vessels to provide cargo details, ownership information, destinations, routes, and transit timing before receiving approval. Ships considered hostile to Iran could be denied passage.
Why Oman is suddenly important
Oman’s position is delicate. Muscat has often acted as a mediator between Washington and Tehran, but it also sits physically on the southern side of the chokepoint Iran is trying to regulate. If Oman rejects Iran’s framing, Tehran’s claim of a bilateral management system weakens. If Oman stays quiet, Iran may try to present silence as room for negotiation.
Western diplomats told The Guardian that Iran’s proposal would be unlawful if it imposes tolls, discriminates between ships by ownership or nationality, or gives Tehran an arbitrary right to approve passage. A rival British-French plan based on freedom of navigation has also been put to Oman and reportedly has support from most Gulf states.
The dispute turns on maritime law. Iran signed the U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea in 1982 but never ratified it. Tehran argues that transit through the strait can be restricted when there is a threat to the sovereignty or territorial integrity of coastal states. The U.S. and its partners argue that Hormuz must remain open for international transit and that tolls would violate freedom of navigation principles.
Washington and Beijing are not saying the same thing
The Oman claim lands just as Washington is trying to use China’s leverage with Iran. President Donald Trump said after meeting Xi Jinping in Beijing that both leaders want the strait open and Iran prevented from obtaining a nuclear weapon. DW reported that China’s public remarks were more cautious: Beijing said the conflict should end and shipping routes should reopen, but Xi did not publicly echo Trump’s full Iran framing.
That gap matters because China is a major buyer of Iranian oil. Iranian media and Al Jazeera reported that some Chinese-linked vessels have been allowed through the strait after cooperating with Iranian rules. Washington says China opposes tolls and militarization. Tehran is trying to show that at least some traffic can move under its system.
The risk is a two-tier Hormuz
The immediate danger is not only a total closure. It is the emergence of a selective Hormuz regime: some ships passing after complying with Iran’s rules, others blocked, delayed, seized, or forced into dangerous rerouting.
That risk is no longer theoretical. Al Jazeera reported that a ship anchored off Fujairah in the United Arab Emirates was seized and taken toward Iranian waters, while an Indian-flagged wooden cargo vessel sank off Oman after a suspected drone or missile strike. All 14 crew members from the Indian vessel were rescued by the Omani coast guard.
For now, Oman’s silence is the key signal to watch. If Muscat publicly distances itself from Iran’s toll plan, Tehran’s legal and diplomatic case becomes harder to sell. If talks continue quietly, the Hormuz crisis may shift from a blockade fight into a battle over who gets to write the rules for one of the world’s most important waterways.
Sources: The Guardian, Al Jazeera, DW.