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Iran and Gulf Hormuz talks postponed, Oman says

September 14, 2026

Oman's foreign minister says the September 14 talks with Iran and Gulf governments about a temporary corridor for ships past the Strait of Hormuz will not go ahead.

The Strait of Hormuz is the global chokepoint for Gulf energy exports, and talks between Tehran and Muscat over the waterway had progressed in recent weeks, with Oman aiming to gather Gulf Cooperation Council foreign ministers.

Key facts

Reuters carries the account of diplomacy faltering with the delay of the Hormuz proposal talks, and straitstimes.com reports Oman's foreign minister confirming that the Sept 14 gathering of Gulf Cooperation Council ministers in Salala will not go ahead. Oman's Foreign Ministry, writing on X, ties the delay to preparing the right setting for a constructive dialogue. Iran, by way of the state-run Islamic Republic News Agency, puts the delay down to a request from countries in the region. CNBC, Bloomberg.com, ft.com, The New York Times and Al Jazeera all carry that same core account, and straitstimes.com reports that attendance had stayed unclear in the run-up.

The surrounding record points the same way. straitstimes.com reports Bahrain declining to take part over recent Iranian-backed attacks on Gulf sites, and reports that the widening fight between Saudi-backed forces and the Houthis had tangled the planning; The Jerusalem Post reports Iraq promising a delegation, with Saudi Arabia and Qatar due to send their foreign ministers. Markets moved with the diplomacy: CNBC reports crude above $100 a barrel for the first time since May once Riyadh shut its East-West line after Iraqi drone damage, and straitstimes.com reports Saudi Aramco shares down nearly 1.1 per cent on Sept 13, their weakest since March. US Energy Secretary Chris Wright, straitstimes.com reports, had already talked down the odds of a Hormuz deal on Sept 13.

The fighting runs alongside the talks. CNBC reports the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps claiming an interception of an MQ-1 drone above the strait by a defence system it calls newly developed, with nothing said of the aircraft's purpose, and straitstimes.com reports Iran's state-run IRIB describing a hostile strike on a merchant ship near the Qeshm and Hengam islands in which one person died. What Iran will accept diverges: one account has Tehran keeping the waterway shut until Washington meets its demands, whatever Muscat agrees, while another account treats the delay as timing alone, sought by governments in the region. The delay, Bahrain's absence, the pipeline shutdown and the move in crude are corroborated; Iran's terms for the waterway are not.

Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps announced on Monday that its "new advanced aerospace defence system" shot down an advanced MQ-1 drone above the Hormuz strait, saying nothing further about what the aircraft had been doing.

Still developing

Accounts of Iran's conditions to reopen the strait do not line up.

How settled the reporting is

Reported 95% · Contested 4% · Developing 1%

Sources