Speaking to reporters on Saturday, Araqchi said Iran and Oman are negotiating the legal framework for managing the Strait of Hormuz, including the designation of a route for vessel traffic.
“We are very close to an agreement,” he said, while stressing that reopening the strait is subject to other conditions, including the US remedying its violations of the Islamabad MoU.
Araqchi said a Traffic Separation Scheme (TSS) had previously been in place for vessels passing through the waterway, but that the route is no longer acceptable to Iran. He said a new TSS needs to be established, although doing so involves extensive technical and legal complexities.
Given those complexities, the foreign minister said the two sides are currently discussing a temporary route. Before a new permanent route is established, a temporary route will be designated as the basis for the main route, he explained.
Araqchi added that military and naval officials from Iran and Oman have been holding discussions based on existing maps, and that a new route will be determined after those talks are finalized.
The minister further stressed that the violations of the Islamabad MoU must be addressed one by one, saying it was the US that violated the understanding.
He said Iran had been implementing Article 5 of the MoU and that vessel traffic was expected to return to normal within one month. In fact, he noted, traffic had reached 60 percent of normal levels within two weeks.
However, Araqchi said the US sought to establish new routes through the Strait of Hormuz despite warnings from Iran, and attempted to undermine Iran’s management of the waterway.
“Therefore, the violation of the memorandum of understanding and (violation of) Iran’s management of the Strait of Hormuz are by no means acceptable to the Islamic Republic of Iran,” he said.
The comments came after IRGC spokesman General Hossein Mohebbi said the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz was “completely independent” of Iran-Oman negotiations and would depend on the US accepting Iran’s conditions.
Mohebbi said the strategic waterway has its own legal and defensive mechanisms and that its reopening is subject to conditions formally established by Iran. He also called on Washington to refrain from interfering in negotiations between Iran and Oman or other regional countries, saying that once the US accepts Iran’s conditions and abandons its interventionist approach, the conditions for reopening the strait will be in place.