Iran and Oman have agreed on the geographical coordinates of designated "safe" transit routes for ships entering and leaving the Strait of Hormuz, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei said on Wednesday (Oct. 7, 2026).
The two countries also agreed on how the route coordinates will be communicated to the relevant international maritime body, Baghaei said, according to Iran’s state-run IRNA news agency.
The agreement builds on a phased Iran-Oman framework for restoring navigation through the strategic waterway.
Oman and Iran previously agreed in August to establish a temporary navigational corridor, clear mines and work towards a permanent corridor, with traffic management and information-sharing arrangements.
However, the agreement does not by itself mean Hormuz is fully open or that commercial vessels have an unconditional guarantee of safe passage.
Iran has previously said reopening the waterway depends on wider conditions.
On August 25, Oman said the two countries had agreed on a "framework" for a joint temporary navigational corridor, with technical talks to establish a permanent corridor, traffic management and information-sharing arrangements.
On August 26, Iran's deputy foreign minister Kazem Gharibabadi said the temporary route would be seven miles wide, with the entry and part of the exit passing through Iranian territorial waters. He stressed, however, that this did not constitute a full reopening of Hormuz.
President Masoud Pezeshkian subsequently confirmed that Iran had agreed with Oman on the passage route, but tied the reopening of the strait to US fulfilment of commitments under the Islamabad memorandum.
Warning from IRGC commander
On Oct. 7, 2026, Brigadier General Mohammad Reza Naqdi, a senior adviser to the commander-in-chief of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), stated that transit routes in the Strait of Hormuz deemed "illegal" by Tehran would soon be blocked.
The official explicitly referenced the alternative southern shipping pathway flanking Oman’s coast.
Naqdi told the semi-official Fars News Agency that these "few routes" were created by blasting and damaging rocky passages in the strategic waterway. He claimed they were being used by "small boats smuggling oil and transferring it to tankers".
The statement was a direct pushback against assertions by top US officials that Gulf oil exports were successfully returning to pre-war levels despite Iran's attempted restrictions.
Naqdi reiterated Tehran's position that the Strait of Hormuz remains "closed" under full IRGC control until Iran's geopolitical demands are met.
Source: Gulf News
-Agencies
