Iran has announced plans to meet Gulf states in Oman on Monday to discuss the Strait of Hormuz, which it has kept blockaded amid the wider conflict. The meeting is being sold as diplomacy, but the facts on the ground are simpler: states are managing a choke point, civilians and shipping live under the pressure, and the region’s rulers are lining up to negotiate over a waterway they treat like a lever.
A senior Iranian official said the meeting between Iran and Gulf states planned for Monday in Oman will be a chance to discuss issues including the Strait of Hormuz, but is not expected to yield a signed agreement over the blockaded waterway. That’s the familiar script. Announce dialogue, preserve the blockade, keep the machinery running. The people who actually move through these waters get a front-row seat to state power, not relief.
The State Monopoly at Sea
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said in India that foreign ministers from Arab states will meet in the Omani capital Muscat on Monday to sign an agreement establishing a joint route between Oman and Iran in the Strait of Hormuz and to notify the International Maritime Organization of the agreement. He said, “This week, on Monday, the foreign ministers of the Arab countries will meet in Muscat to sign an agreement establishing a joint route between Oman and Iran in the Strait of Hormuz and to notify the International Maritime Organization of the agreement.” He also said, “The countries whose territories were used to launch attacks against us by the US will also attend this meeting.”
That line does a lot of work. It folds the region’s rulers, their territory, and the US into the same map of coercion, where land becomes a platform for attacks and negotiations become a way to manage the fallout. The International Maritime Organization gets notified, because even the paperwork of control needs paperwork.
Saudi Civil Defense confirmed that an earlier security alert in Sharurah Governorate has been resolved. Kuwait Minister of Foreign Affairs Sheikh Jarrah Jaber Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah received a call from his Bahraini counterpart Dr Abdullatif Al-Zayani on Saturday. The report did not say what the call was about. Bahrain had earlier said it would not attend. The official language stays vague, as it usually does when states are trying to keep their own populations calm while they trade warnings, denials, and back-channel messages.
Rulers, Blocs, and the Usual Theater
The developments came as the Iran conflict entered a new phase amid meetings in India and Oman. The article said countries in the Gulf are looking to what may come next, even as Saudi Arabia faces pressure from Iranian-backed groups in Iraq and Yemen. Oman has an amicable relationship with Tehran and has shown willingness to discuss the Strait of Hormuz. The article said the US even threatened Oman over that.
At the BRICS summit in New Delhi, India, Chinese President Xi Jinping was shown speaking during a meeting with India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the sidelines of the BRICS Summit in New Delhi, India, September 12, 2026. The meeting included Iran and the UAE. The UAE’s Sheikh Khaled bin Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi, met Iran’s Masoud Pezeshkian, President of Iran, on the sidelines of the 18th BRICS Leaders Summit in New Delhi, India. Gulf News reported that during the meeting, the two sides discussed a number of regional and international issues of mutual interest, as well as the importance of supporting efforts to promote calm, de-escalation and stability in the region and enhance prospects for peace and development for its peoples.
The language is polished. The structure is not. Regional and international issues of mutual interest means rulers talking to rulers while everyone else absorbs the consequences. Calm, de-escalation and stability sound nice in a summit hall. They don’t cancel blockades, threats, or the fact that the region keeps being run through state channels.
India is seeking to take a leadership role in BRICS during its time holding the presidency of the bloc. It is talking about “Building resilience, innovation, cooperation and sustainability.” The UAE has been a member since 2024. Gulf News said its membership is part of the country’s approach to multilateral cooperation, with BRICS providing a platform for dialogue on economic development, trade, investment and global governance among emerging economies.
Who Pays for the Stability Talk
Saudi Arabia has shut down its East-West Pipeline as a precaution after strikes hit the line in the Riyadh and Madinah regions, leaving several people injured. It said Saudi Arabia is the largest country in the Gulf and has historically had a leadership role. It added that with the Houthis on the march and Iranian-backed militias in Iraq carrying out attacks, there are rising concerns about the next stage of the Iran conflict. The White House appears to want the conflict to wind down and has hinted that the US won’t be striking the Houthis. Riyadh is holding off on attacks on Iraq.
That’s the real rhythm here: precaution, shutdown, restraint, holding off. Not peace. Management. The pipeline closes, people get injured, and the region’s strongest states calculate their next move while the White House signals limits and everyone else waits to see who gets hit next.
BRICS said, “we express deep concern over the continued escalation of tensions in the Middle East/West Asia and, recalling our respective national positions, call for exercising maximum restraint, as well as avoiding actions that could further aggravate the situation,” in a statement issued in New Delhi. China’s Xinhua said Xi stressed that “the world is undergoing accelerated transformation unseen in a century, the Global South is rapidly growing in strength, and the trend toward a multipolar world is unstoppable.” Xinhua also quoted him as saying BRICS countries should “firmly stand on the right side of history, strive to be a pioneer of the times, steer the international order toward greater justice and equity, and work together to build a community with a shared future for humanity.”
The statements are grand. The machinery is familiar. Maximum restraint from blocs, leadership roles from states, and a maritime route to be signed, notified, and managed. The people below get the blockade, the alerts, the injuries, and the next phase of the conflict.