Iran and Oman are drafting a protocol to “monitor transit” through the Strait of Hormuz, Iranian state news agency IRNA quoted an official as saying on Thursday morning.
Iran’s deputy minister of legal and international affairs, Kazem Gharibabadi, said tanker traffic through the key oil-shipping route “should be supervised and coordinated” with both countries, according to a translation of the IRNA report.
“Of course, these requirements will not mean restrictions, but rather facilitating and ensuring safe passage and providing better services to ships passing through this route,” Gharibabadi reportedly said.
US stock indexes, which were trading sharply lower on Thursday morning after President Donald Trump signaled that the Iran war would continue for weeks to come, suddenly surged higher after the IRNA report.
Oil prices, which had similarly risen overnight, eased off the day’s highs on the Oman news, which raised hopes that the Strait of Hormuz might be able to reopen in some capacity without the need for military force.
The strait, a vital artery for much of the world’s oil transit, has been effectively closed since the war began with US and Israeli strikes on Iran on February 28.
The blockade of Iran has caused oil prices to rise sharply to historic highs, creating a widespread crisis with widespread impacts around the world.
Trump insisted the US was unaffected by the closure because it imports relatively little oil through the strait. “We don’t need this and we don’t need it,” he said in his address to the nation on Wednesday night.
But average US gas prices have nevertheless risen more than 30% in a month, topping $4 a gallon for the first time in years.