Qatar's Prime Minister and Foreign Minister, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, is visiting Tehran on Thursday in an attempt to revive the diplomatic track and de-escalate tensions between Iran and the United States, at a time when the two countries are exchanging threats and Washington is intensifying its economic pressure on Tehran and its trading partners.
اضافة اعلان
The visit comes as Qatar — a U.S. ally and Iran's neighbor in the Gulf — plays a pivotal role in mediation efforts between the two sides, having helped broker a ceasefire in June that halted the fighting for a brief period.
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei said the Qatari prime minister's talks would address the continuation of mediation efforts and regional developments.
For his part, Qatari Foreign Ministry spokesman Majed Al Ansari said on the platform X that the talks would cover "freedom of navigation in the Strait of Hormuz" and the need to restore it to what it was before February 28, in addition to ways to de-escalate tensions and create the conditions for dialogue.
Hormuz at the Heart of the Crisis
The Qatari official's visit comes as the Strait of Hormuz — through which around 20 million barrels of crude oil passed daily before the war — remains at the core of the dispute between Tehran and Washington.
Oil flows through the strait dropped to around five million barrels per day on Monday, according to the latest ship-tracking data, their lowest level in three months.
In a development adding to the tension, the UK Maritime Trade Operations agency said on Thursday that an unidentified projectile struck a tanker in the strait, sparking a fire that was later extinguished, with no crew casualties reported.
The UN's International Maritime Organization reported 70 incidents in the Strait of Hormuz since February 28, which have killed 19 sailors.
Iran continues to use the strait as a pressure card against Washington, while also seeking to impose fees on passing vessels — something the United States rejects.
Iranian-Omani Dispute over Management of the Strait
Iran's Revolutionary Guard announced on Wednesday that Tehran and Muscat had reached an understanding on how to share management of the waterway and its revenues.
However, a senior Iranian source said that a "final agreement" had not been reached with Oman, explaining that talks over the details were still ongoing.
This contradicts a statement by Revolutionary Guard spokesman Brigadier General Hossein Mahbi, who said the two countries had reached "mutually acceptable outcomes" regarding control of the strait and the sharing of its revenues.
Mahbi said the strait would remain closed unless the United States meets Tehran's conditions set out in the temporary ceasefire agreement the two sides reached in June before it collapsed — among them ending the blockade on Iranian ports, paying compensation, and lifting sanctions.
Over the past weeks, Iran and Oman have held intermittent talks on managing shipping traffic in the strait, at a time when Tehran and Washington are each imposing separate measures to restrict traffic and are competing to assert their influence over the strategic waterway.
Economic Pressure Instead of Strikes
About six months after the outbreak of the war, combat operations have largely subsided, and U.S. Central Command has not announced any attacks on Iran in about a month.
In contrast, Washington has increasingly turned to economic pressure, announcing new sanctions aimed at isolating Iran from its trading partners.
Although the airstrikes Iran was subjected to weakened its conventional military capabilities, Tehran still possesses an arsenal of missiles and drones capable of threatening tanker traffic in the strait and targeting neighboring countries that host U.S. military bases.
According to the war's stated objectives, the United States and Israel are seeking to prevent Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon, destroy its missile program, and support efforts toward regime change in Tehran.
The Qatari prime minister's visit to Tehran remains a new test of Gulf mediation's ability to reopen channels of dialogue, at a time when the Strait of Hormuz remains the most prominent obstacle to any settlement between Tehran and Washington.
Reuters
