The Strait of Hormuz was still the hinge of a six-month war on Tuesday, even as Iran and Oman talked up a temporary shipping corridor and Washington claimed the U.S. Navy had already cleared mines from international waters. None of that, Tehran said, meant the strait was open.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and Oman’s Badr al-Busaidi, meeting in Tehran, said they had discussed a phased framework that would include a joint temporary navigational corridor and a joint project to clear mines. They also said technical talks would continue toward a more permanent corridor and “future administration” of the waterway, plus traffic management and security services. Iran’s deputy foreign minister, Kazem Gharibabadi, was blunt about the limits. He said Hormuz remains closed and under Iranian control, dismissed reports of ships passing through as “baseless,” and argued that the Oman talks do not amount to a reopening. He described a proposed temporary route about seven miles wide, with the entry and part of the exit running through Iranian territorial waters.
President Donald Trump, posting on Truth Social, said the Navy had removed or detonated all mines in international waters of the strait and warned that any vessel placing new mines would be “immediately and systematically destroyed.” Maritime authorities were less categorical. The Joint Maritime Information Center said Tuesday there was still a continued risk of drifting or uncharted mines, with mine danger areas still active, and kept its threat assessment at severe.
The scramble sat on top of a new U.S. economic campaign. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on Monday launched what he called Operation Economic Outcast, an “economic D-Day” meant to cut off Iran’s remaining financial lifelines. The Treasury sanctioned nearly 60 people, entities and vessels and expanded the kinds of Iran-related activity that could face secondary sanctions, covering digital assets, technology, gold, aviation and shipping. Bessent warned countries still doing business with Tehran, but he stopped short of naming targets or imposing the harshest penalties, asking why he would want to “blow up the global financial system.” Chinese banks, long suspected of handling Iranian oil trade, were not on the list.
Iran’s economy minister, Ali Madanizadeh, called the measures an “economic terrorist attack” and said Washington should “expect an attack” in return, without saying what that would look like. China, Iran’s biggest oil customer in recent years, said it opposed “illegal unilateral sanctions” and would protect its own interests. Pakistan, which has been trying to mediate, said a visiting delegation led by army chief Asim Munir made “significant progress” in talks with Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian focused on de-escalation and reopening the strait.
Before the war, which began in late February after U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran, Hormuz carried about a fifth of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas. Shipping data showed just two commodity vessels transiting on Monday, the lowest daily tally since early May. The International Maritime Organization has confirmed 68 incidents in the Gulf and nearby waters over six months. Oil prices, which had jumped through much of August, steadied on Tuesday.
