Iran and Oman have reached a mutual understanding on the geographic coordinates for shipping routes through the Strait of Hormuz, Iran's foreign ministry announced Wednesday, with a joint statement described as being in its "final stage" of drafting. The potential agreement would see ships entering the Persian Gulf through an Iranian-controlled route and exiting through a route jointly managed with Oman, with service fees charged for security and environmental preservation. US President Donald Trump said a formal announcement could come "tomorrow or the next day", describing significant progress in talks, while Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent both expressed cautious optimism about an imminent deal.

The Strait of Hormuz, a narrow waterway between Iran and the Arabian Peninsula through which roughly a fifth of the world's traded oil and natural gas once flowed, has been the central flashpoint of the conflict that began when the US and Israel launched joint strikes on Iran on 28 February. Iran subsequently asserted control over the strait, targeting vessels it said had violated authorised shipping routes, and effectively bringing maritime traffic to near a halt — causing fuel prices and the cost of basic goods to rise sharply across the global economy. Iran's deputy foreign minister Kazem Gharib Abadi stressed that reaching an agreement with Oman on shipping maps did not automatically mean reopening the strait, which he said was contingent on Washington lifting sanctions, ending its naval blockade and releasing frozen Iranian assets.

Significant gaps remain. Iran has sought to charge transit fees of between 5% and 7% of cargo value, Oman has proposed around 3%, and the US has firmly opposed any fees at all. Washington had previously ruled out any arrangement that would formalise Iranian control over the waterway, viewing it as a departure from the longstanding principle of the strait as a neutral, international passage. Regional officials briefed on the talks told the Associated Press that the draft deal still awaits final approval from Iran's Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, who is believed to have been wounded in the opening strikes of the war and has not been seen in public since. Iran's foreign ministry warned that a joint statement could only be issued "if certain parties do not obstruct the process" — an apparent reference to possible interference from the US or Israel.

The diplomatic momentum comes against a backdrop of continued regional instability. Houthi rebels in Yemen, aligned with Iran, claimed to have fired ballistic missiles at Saudi oil tankers on the Red Sea near the port of Yanbu, and a vessel in the Gulf of Aden reported a nearby explosion, though its crew was reported safe. Separately, a British maritime authority reported that a tanker heard two explosions while transiting the Strait of Hormuz near the Omani coast, with no damage or casualties. Meanwhile, a fragile ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon's Hezbollah grew more volatile, with Israeli forces conducting what they described as "precise strikes" in southern Lebanon, even as Lebanese and Israeli negotiators met in Rome for a second day of talks.

If finalised, the Iran-Oman agreement would represent one of the most significant diplomatic concessions of the conflict, granting Tehran a degree of formal authority over one of the world's most strategically vital chokepoints. Officials on all sides cautioned that important details remain unresolved and that the deal, even if signed, would function as a temporary measure — intended as a stepping stone toward broader US-Iran negotiations on Tehran's nuclear programme and a more durable end to hostilities. Trump, who faces mounting domestic pressure to bring the costly and unpopular conflict to a close ahead of US congressional elections, has alternated in recent days between threatening further military strikes and expressing support for diplomatic solutions.