Hormuz Dispute Shifts Focus: From Freedom of Navigation to Control and Transit Fees

Indirect technical talks between Washington and Tehran held in Doha this week concluded with only a limited agreement aimed at maintaining temporary stability in the Strait of Hormuz for the next seven days. The short-term arrangement is intended to provide both sides with additional time to seek common ground as negotiations enter the second week of the previously agreed 60-day roadmap outlined in the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU).

Prospects for a Comprehensive Agreement Continue to Fade

According to sources familiar with the negotiations, hopes of reaching a final agreement are becoming increasingly slim. Those sources believe the current MoU is now more likely to collapse than to evolve into a comprehensive settlement.

Iranian Parliament Speaker and chief negotiator Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf stated: "currently not negotiating with the United States at all."

Qatar's Ministry of Foreign Affairs also confirmed that no high-level face-to-face meetings between U.S. and Iranian officials have taken place. Instead, technical teams continue to shuttle between Doha and several other locations, maintaining the indirect communication channel established during earlier rounds of negotiations in Switzerland.

The Core Dispute: Sovereignty and Transit Fees

The most significant point of contention now centers on control over the Strait of Hormuz.

Iran has proposed establishing a joint sovereignty mechanism with Oman under which the two countries would jointly oversee maritime traffic and collect transit fees once the 60-day MoU expires.

Washington, however, argues that any new governance framework for an international waterway must receive broad support from Gulf states. Earlier, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio stated that Iran's proposed transit fee mechanism would make a diplomatic agreement "unfeasible."

Adding another layer of complexity, Oman has reportedly submitted its own proposal to the United States and its allies, calling for shipping companies to pay service fees when transiting the waterway.

The proposal has heightened concerns among Western countries and Gulf allies, with many viewing it as a potential first step toward a joint fee collection mechanism between Iran and Oman on one of the world's most strategically important energy shipping routes.

Grounding Incident Becomes a Geopolitical Talking Point

Against the backdrop of ongoing tensions, the grounding of a container vessel quickly evolved into a geopolitical issue.

On Tuesday, Iranian state media reported that a foreign container ship had run aground in shallow waters after failing to follow the transit route designated by Tehran. Iranian authorities used the incident to reinforce their position that vessels should navigate through the officially approved southern corridor near Larak Island when transiting the Strait.

Iran also warned that using routes outside those designated by Tehran "may lead to irreversible incidents."

The Story Behind the Arista Incident

However, maritime intelligence firm TankerTrackers later identified the vessel as Arista, a 20,643-DWT container ship flying the Comoros flag and built in 2006.

Notably, the vessel had already been sanctioned by the U.S. Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) in July 2025 under its former name, Gauja, over alleged links to Reel Shipping.

Publicly available AIS data shows that the vessel's status has been listed as "aground" north of Hormuz Island. More importantly, the tracking data indicates that the ship has remained in that position since mid-March 2026, rather than having recently grounded as reported by Iranian state media.

TankerTrackers also reported that Arista is part of a shipping network operated by Mohammad Hossein Shamkhani, the son of the late senior Iranian security official Ali Shamkhani.

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Source: Phaata.com (According to Splash247)

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