Tehran has rejected an Omani proposal for joint regional management of the Strait of Hormuz, prolonging a crisis that has upended global energy markets and drawn Israel deeper into the confrontation with Iran. A senior Iranian official told Reuters on Wednesday that Iran ruled out Oman's proposal, saying it had no chance of success. Deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Gharibabadi told state television on Tuesday that Iran instead proposed a temporary arrangement under which one direction of traffic would pass through Iranian waters and part of the opposite route would also be in Iranian waters.
Two Middle Eastern diplomats said Tuesday there had been progress in efforts to resolve the crisis, though no final agreement had been reached. They said the emerging proposal focused on a temporary solution establishing a central shipping route through the strait, running between Omani and Iranian territorial waters. They stressed the proposal would be only temporary. Gharibabadi said the Strait of Hormuz would remain closed if Muscat rejected Iran's proposal, and said Tehran had never recognized the southern route along Oman's coast.
Israel's Operational Role
Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz revealed Tuesday that US Air Force fighter jets and bombers flew from Israeli bases to attack Iran in recent weeks, according to Middle East Eye. Katz told the right-wing Israeli broadcaster Channel 14, "The Iranians know" that the aircraft took off from Israel. He also said, "The arrogant empire that threatened to destroy Israel has collapsed," and added, "We announced in the clearest terms that if Israel is fired upon, we will attack with all our might. We are prepared to strike Iran." Katz also said, "We know how to manage things, and we are prepared."
The comments came after US President Donald Trump and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met in Washington DC on Tuesday. A source familiar with the details told The Jerusalem Post, "It was a very positive meeting. You could see the chemistry between the leaders." Israel intercepted at least three drones near the Jordanian border on Monday and Tuesday, Middle East Eye reported.
The Diplomatic Impasse
Another Iranian official told Reuters that despite Tehran's rejection of the 50-50 arrangement, it still viewed Oman as a valuable neighbor. That official also accused the US and Saudi Arabia of pressuring Oman to advance what Tehran described as unrealistic plans for the strait. Earlier, Oman had presented a proposal to Iran for joint regional management of the Strait of Hormuz with shipping firms paying voluntary fees. According to a report in The Wall Street Journal, the negotiations were narrowly focused on shipping and were not meant to put a full stop to the conflict. Mediators hoped a temporary agreement on the shipping issue would cool tempers and ultimately lead to more advanced talks, the report said.
Iran and Oman were still far from reaching agreement on some aspects of the situation, including whether to charge transit fees, mediators and one US official told the WSJ. The talks reflect the narrow window for diplomacy in a crisis that has already spread beyond the Strait of Hormuz. Middle East Eye reported that in the most recent round of fighting between Iran and the US, Israel had played a seemingly minimal role, that the US military and its Gulf allies had launched strikes on Iran but that Israeli forces had not participated, and that Iran had focused its attacks on US interests in the Gulf rather than attacks on Israel.
The Regional Spillover
The confrontation has cost lives across the Middle East and upended the global economy, according to an opinion piece in The National. It said what began as a crisis sparked by the US and Israel's attack on Iran and Tehran's attacks on the Gulf and Strait of Hormuz was no longer confined to a single chokepoint or even a single geography. The piece said Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said this week that the country's armed forces struck a Russian warship and vessels used for transporting Iran-linked military cargo in the Caspian Sea. It said the Red Sea was emerging as a second front, citing threats from Yemen's Iran-backed Houthis against civilian shipping and the group's attacks on Saudi infrastructure. It also said this week's drone launches from Iraqi territory into Saudi Arabia were additional evidence that the conflict was spilling across borders.
The report said popular US critics of the war, including Tucker Carlson, had suggested that Israel's plan on Iran was always to have the US do the bulk of the fighting. It said that sentiment was shared by members of the Israeli government, including finance minister Bezalel Smotrich, who described the renewed US war on Iran as the ideal outcome for Israel, provided Israelis did not have to fight it themselves. Smotrich said, "Israel has no interest in joining the campaign - the current situation is the best for us," in comments carried by Kan news.
The National's opinion piece said networks such as militias, drones, supply chains and shipping routes were shaping a rolling confrontation that made escalation harder to predict and contain. It said renewed diplomacy was vital, but that it must lead to a conclusion that applied to the conflict in all its aspects. It said a sullen truce between the US and Iran was possible, but that it must also include Tehran-backed paramilitaries in Iraq, Yemen and elsewhere. It said energy security, maritime safety and regional stability were now intertwined with a broader and more unpredictable security environment.
Why This Matters:
Iran's rejection of the Omani proposal extends a crisis that threatens global energy supplies and reveals the limits of regional diplomacy when Tehran holds the leverage of closure. The Islamic Republic's insistence on controlling both directions of Hormuz traffic through its own waters shows how Iran uses geography as a weapon, not a basis for negotiation. Israel's willingness to provide basing for US strikes demonstrates the depth of strategic coordination between Washington and Jerusalem in countering Iranian aggression, even as some Israeli officials prefer that American forces bear the primary combat burden. The spillover into Iraq, Yemen, and even the Caspian Sea illustrates how Iran's proxy network turns localized disputes into region-wide threats. Any temporary shipping arrangement that doesn't address Tehran's broader use of militias, drones, and asymmetric warfare will only freeze the crisis, not resolve it. The intertwining of energy security, maritime safety, and the activities of Iran-backed paramilitaries means that Western and Gulf states face a rolling confrontation with no clear off-ramp as long as Tehran views escalation as strategically advantageous.