Symbolic imageTehran has rejected Trump's claim to the waterway, saying its blockade holds until Washington concedes defeat, as attacks on shipping multiply. Oil from a grounded tanker has now reached Oman's coast, where crews are cleaning some 12 kilometres of shoreline.
The Strait of Hormuz is at the centre of a dispute arising from the ongoing war in the Middle East, which has left commercial shipping crews caught in the area. According to reporting by Folha de S.Paulo, roughly 6,000 sailors are stranded there, unable to complete their voyages because of the conflict. The case has been taken up by Volker Türk, the United Nations human rights chief, who has framed it as a matter requiring urgent measures. What such measures would consist of, and which parties would have to act on them, is not specified in the available reporting. The overall scale and duration of the situation therefore remain unconfirmed beyond the UN's own account.
Al Jazeera reported on Saturday that cleanup crews are working along 12 kilometres of Omani coastline after a spill from the grounded tanker. Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei put the region's environmental damage from the Hormuz oil slicks in the trillions of dollars and said everyone involved in commercial shipping operations must bear legal and moral responsibility for clearing the aftermath.
Iran has rejected Trump's threat to declare the Strait of Hormuz US territory, saying its blockade holds until Washington concedes defeat. Attacks on shipping are multiplying.
Crude closed Friday with a weekly gain of about 6 percent, with the Strait of Hormuz shut since February. Economists warn Iran's economy is nearing collapse.
US President Donald Trump said on Friday he would soon declare the Strait of Hormuz a territory of the United States. Tehran rejected the claim.
Washington will unveil measures next week amounting to economic isolation 'like the world has never seen' against Iran, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent says. Crude held its decline as a Hormuz deal stayed elusive.
The UAE accuses Iran of attacking two ADNOC ships in the Strait of Hormuz on Thursday evening. Tehran says no ship may pass without its permission.
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Trump said on Wednesday the United States has "total control" of the closed Strait of Hormuz. Tehran denied the same day that talks on extending the ceasefire are under way.
A US helicopter fired on a Panama-flagged cargo ship in the Gulf of Oman on Tuesday to enforce Washington's blockade of Iranian ports. Trump claimed full control of the Strait of Hormuz.
Donald Trump wants Iran to pay compensation for people killed over five decades. Tehran keeps the Strait of Hormuz shut until its terms are met.
Up to 20,000 seafarers, mostly Indian and Filipino crews, have been stuck aboard ships in the Gulf since February because the war between the United States and Iran has closed shipping routes, The Guardian reported on Sunday. Crew members describe life on board as being like prison and say none of them knows when they will be able to leave.
Iran's supreme leader has put two Revolutionary Guard veterans into top security posts while the Strait of Hormuz stays shut. Washington is betting on pressure, not new strikes.
Tehran says a deal with Oman on the Strait of Hormuz is close but will not itself reopen the waterway. The UAE blames an Iranian missile for Saturday's strike on an Adnoc tanker.
A US official said on Friday that Washington expects an Iran-Oman agreement to reopen commercial shipping through the Strait of Hormuz within days. Whether Iran may charge passing ships remains unresolved.
Abu Dhabi's Adnoc said on Friday that missile and drone attacks have hit 15 of its vessels in the Strait of Hormuz, killing one crew member and wounding 20. Iranian crude exports from Kharg Island have been at a standstill under the renewed US blockade.
Iran said on Wednesday its talks with Oman on reopening the Strait of Hormuz had reached their final stages. Reports on Friday say the draft would bar US and Israeli vessels and charge hostile states for passage.
Iran announced on Wednesday that it had agreed with Oman on the coordinates of a new shipping route through the Strait of Hormuz. Bloomberg reports oil held a three-day drop on Thursday.
Thousands of civilian crew members remain stranded on ships at risk of attack by Iran in and around the Strait of Hormuz, and on one vessel sailors have been held by the Iranian navy for more than three months, the New York Times reported on Tuesday. CENTCOM said US forces have redirected 45 vessels and boarded two since the blockade of Iran resumed, according to TASS.
US, Qatari and Omani officials say a deal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz could come within days, with draft language circulating. The waterway was still shut to shipping on Tuesday, day 158 of the US-Iran war.
An unidentified projectile struck a cargo vessel about 37 km northeast of Khasab, Oman, overnight into Tuesday. The Jerusalem Post reports that Iran's Revolutionary Guard attacked a US base in Kuwait with drones the same morning.
US Central Command says 35 commercial ships have been rerouted at the blockaded Strait of Hormuz as of Sunday. Iran's Foreign Ministry says a route agreement with Oman alone will not reopen the waterway.
US President Donald Trump said on Monday that negotiations with Iran are under way and are Tehran's "last chance" before what he called a "decapitation". Iran's foreign ministry denies any contact with Washington and says it is talking only to Oman.
Iran's foreign minister said on Sunday that talks with Oman on a new shipping route through the Strait of Hormuz are in their final stages. The US naval blockade of Iran, resumed in mid-July, is still in force.
US President Donald Trump says he cancelled a planned wave of strikes on Iran and that talks with Tehran open on Monday afternoon. Iranian agencies deny any deal on the Strait of Hormuz was reached.
Iran's foreign ministry warned Gulf countries not to let the United States or Israel use their territory and said Tehran would invoke its right to legitimate self-defence, Politika reported. Senior Iranian political, military and security officials said any renewed US military action or continued interference in the Strait of Hormuz would trigger retaliation, according to the Tehran Times, and the New York Times reported that Iranians used a brief truce to devise plans with proxies to raise the war's costs for Trump.
The UK Maritime Trade Operations agency reported two incidents involving tankers off Oman on Saturday. One vessel was left inoperative after a projectile struck its engine room.
US President Donald Trump said on Saturday he had cancelled a planned major attack on Iran, saying Tehran and other Middle Eastern states had agreed the "outlines of a deal". He named two conditions: the complete opening of the Strait of Hormuz and an end to Iran's nuclear threat.
Iran said on Friday it struck two oil tankers crossing the Strait of Hormuz under US military escort and declared the waterway closed. CENTCOM says the strait remains open and that Iran does not control it.
Pakistan secured Iranian agreement for the tanker Al Areesh, idle in the Persian Gulf since early July after loading at Qatar's Ras Laffan terminal, to pass through the Strait of Hormuz on Thursday morning, TASS reported. Qatar sent its first LNG cargo through the waterway since one of its tankers was attacked more than three weeks ago, and CENTCOM says it has redirected 24 ships since Iran's blockade began.
Tehran has turned down Oman's proposal for joint regional management of the Strait of Hormuz, a senior Iranian official told Reuters, ending hopes of a quick diplomatic exit from a war that has disrupted Gulf shipping for months. CENTCOM says it has redirected 20 commercial vessels, disabled two and boarded two since resuming its naval blockade of Iranian ports on 14 July, while Washington sanctioned what it calls Iran's Hormuz 'extortion network'. The Revolutionary Guards say they stopped three oil tankers in the strait and retain full control of the waterway.
Oman has put a Gulf-backed proposal to Tehran to manage and reopen the Strait of Hormuz jointly, modelled on the Strait of Malacca with voluntary fees for passing ships. Iran's deputy foreign minister rejected an equal split of the transit routes, demanded one lane entirely under Iranian control plus part of the second, and said the waterway stays closed unless Muscat accepts. US Central Command said it has redirected 18 commercial vessels since resuming its naval blockade of Iran on 14 July.
Iranian and Omani officials concluded two days of high-level talks in Tehran on safeguarding maritime traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, which Iran described as productive, according to Tehran Times and the South China Morning Post. Iran said the progress followed a halt in US air strikes, while Revolutionary Guard vessels stopped ships in the waterway.
UN human rights chief Volker Türk called for urgent measures to resolve the situation of thousands of seafarers affected by the war in the Middle East, Folha de S.Paulo reported on Friday. Some 6,000 sailors are stranded in the Strait of Hormuz.