Alexandra Sharp
Foreign Policy / June 29, 2026
Who Controls Hormuz ?
Tehran insists that it has sole authority over the waterway. Washington isn’t convinced.
U.S. and Iranian officials are preparing to hold indirect talks in Qatar on Tuesday and Wednesday following days of tit-for-tat strikes that threatened to unravel the two sides’ precarious cease-fire. Rather than focus on Iran’s nuclear program, though—as was supposed to be the priority of this week’s negotiations—the parties plan to discuss ongoing security concerns in the Strait of Hormuz.
Earlier this month, the United States and Iran signed a preliminary peace agreement that included a provision to reopen the strategic waterway. However, the deal’s vague wording, which states that Tehran “will make arrangements using its best efforts for the safe passage of commercial vessels with no charge for 60 days,” has left room for interpretation and has fanned the flames of further conflict.
The latest result has been four straight days of reignited hostilities. On Thursday, an Iranian drone damaged a Singapore-flagged container ship off the coast of Oman. In response, U.S. forces launched retaliatory strikes targeting Iranian missile and drone storage sites as well as coastal radar facilities. Then, over the weekend, Iran attacked another vessel in the Strait of Hormuz and later claimed to have targeted U.S. military bases in Bahrain and Kuwait.
U.S. officials told Axios on Sunday that the two sides had agreed to halt their attacks. Still, this flare-up in violence appears to have dashed hopes that the critical thoroughfare could effectively reopen for commercial traffic in the near term.
According to Kpler, a maritime data tracking firm, the number of ships transiting the Strait of Hormuz dropped from 74 vessels on Wednesday to just 22 vessels on Sunday. And a plan announced last week by the International Maritime Organization to evacuate some 600 ships currently stranded in the strait remained paused on Monday.
The United States has pushed commercial vessels to use a route that hugs the Omani coast and avoids Iranian waters. However, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi stressed on Sunday that Tehran is solely responsible for managing the strait and that “any attempt to adopt new or separate arrangements from those currently being pursued by the Islamic Republic will only lead to further complications, delays in reopening the Strait of Hormuz, and an increase in tensions.”
Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Gharibabadi reiterated this stance on Monday, warning that the “situation is sensitive and complex” and denouncing a French initiative, announced that day, to work with Oman to demine the strait.
Meanwhile, Omani Foreign Minister Badr Albusaidi confirmed on Monday that Oman and Iran are in talks about potentially charging service-related fees for commercial ships using the waterway. These services could include pollution prevention, navigational assistance, water safety measures, and other incident preparedness aid. However, he insisted that it would not be a charge for transit. “This is internationally forbidden, and we are abiding by these rules,” Albusaidi said.
If this week’s talks to reopen the Strait of Hormuz are successful, then the global economy could begin to move toward recovery from the months-long war. Oil prices inched higher on Monday following the recent spate of attacks, with Brent crude ticking up almost 1 percent to more than $73 a barrel for September deliveries and West Texas Intermediate crude rising more than 1 percent to roughly $70 a barrel.
Alexandra Sharp – the World Brief writer at Foreign Policy
