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A high-stakes diplomatic conference intended to restore commercial navigation through the Strait of Hormuz has been shelved after regional governments failed to reach a consensus, leaving efforts to ease shipping disruptions in the strategic waterway stalled.
The summit, which had been scheduled to convene in the Omani port city of Salalah on Monday, was organized to bring together senior officials from Iran, Iraq, and member states of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). Bahrain was the sole GCC member that refused to participate in the gathering.
On Sunday evening, regional authorities formally announced that the multilateral meeting had been postponed indefinitely, without providing a revised timetable. While participating governments avoided directly linking the cancellation to recent military escalations, the delay highlights profound political rifts surrounding the future management of the strait.
Iran’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs attributed the diplomatic breakdown directly to objections raised by Saudi Arabia, without offering further specifics. However, reports published by United States news outlets Axios and CNN indicated that Riyadh had presented amendments to the draft proposal due to fears that the agreement’s wording would establish a new maritime status quo unacceptable to the kingdom.
The diplomatic impasse arrives amid heightened security friction across the region. Just days before the scheduled talks, Saudi Arabia was forced to shut down its critical East-West oil pipeline—the country’s primary alternative infrastructure for energy exports—following drone strikes launched from Iraqi territory.
Following the disruption to the Saudi pipeline network, US President Donald Trump declared that the drone attacks originating in Iraq were likely carried out at the direction of Tehran, adding to the geopolitical strain surrounding the negotiations.
Security challenges facing Riyadh have been further compounded by intensified operations from Yemen's Houthis, who seized control of the country's Red Sea coastline over the weekend. The group claimed responsibility for firing dozens of ballistic missiles and armed drones aimed at military installations in the Saudi city of Khamis Mushait.
The Houthi forces framed the barrage as direct retaliation for airstrikes conducted across Yemen, which the group blamed on Saudi Arabia. The incoming strikes prompted Saudi civil defence authorities to issue emergency warnings for several southern and western areas, including Abha, Khamis Mushait, Jazan, and Najran, only hours after the Salalah summit was called off.
Amid the mounting regional unrest, Tehran has maintained that it will not directly engage with Washington regarding the Strait of Hormuz or ending the wider conflict unless the United States takes tangible steps to end its naval blockade on Iran and returns to the memorandum of understanding signed in June.
With the broader regional summit deferred, Iranian authorities have signaled that they plan to continue advancing a separate bilateral maritime arrangement with Oman, which was finalized last month to manage passage through the waterway.
During a weekly press conference in Tehran on Monday, Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei stated that Iran will decide on the next procedural steps to officially register or announce the bilateral accord following consultations with Omani officials.
The diplomatic engagement between Muscat and Tehran has developed despite sharp rhetoric from the White House, with President Trump having previously warned that the US would bomb Oman if the sultanate interfered with American policy and ongoing confrontations with Iran.
Ali Vaez, deputy director of the Middle East and North Africa programme at the International Crisis Group, observed that Tehran is deliberately using its strategic leverage over the waterway to secure regional backing and place pressure on Washington. He noted that securing broader regional consensus would make it increasingly difficult for the US administration to dismiss the transit plan as merely an Iranian diktat.
Vaez also pointed out that Gulf Cooperation Council states, currently facing steep declines in energy revenues due to disrupted shipping, are eager to see maritime routes restored and their economies shielded from a wider confrontation. However, he assessed that the US is unlikely to end its naval blockade even if Gulf nations endorse the Omani-Iranian framework.
Nevertheless, Vaez highlighted that Washington will find it harder over time to sustain its blockade policy if its regional partners conclude that the American approach is perpetuating the regional crisis. Under the bilateral initiative crafted by Muscat and Tehran, the proposed plan would introduce temporary entry and exit corridors to facilitate the navigation of commercial vessels traversing the Strait of Hormuz.
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