WNAM MONITORING: Oman announced the postponement of a regional meeting scheduled for Monday in its southern city of Salalah to discuss arrangements for a new maritime route through the Strait of Hormuz.
The Omani Foreign Ministry said late Sunday that the meeting had been postponed to a later date “to help create appropriate conditions for constructive dialogue.”
It said the decision was taken out of a desire to create conditions for talks that can lead to sustainable understandings supporting regional security and stability and meeting the aspirations of the region’s peoples for cooperation and peace.
“In the interests of consensus, the regional meeting set for tomorrow in Salalah has been postponed,” Omani Foreign Minister Badr Albusaidi wrote on the US social media platform X.
“We remain committed to fostering dialogue that supports stability and lasting cooperation in our region,” he added.
Albusaidi accompanied his post with the flags of Bahrain, Iran, Iraq, the United Arab Emirates, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, indicating the countries that had been expected to take part.
He did not announce a new date for the meeting or elaborate on the reason for its postponement.
The postponement came a day after Bahrain rejected participation in a proposed regional ministerial meeting involving Iran.
The Bahraini Foreign Ministry said Saturday that Manama will not participate in any collective ministerial meeting with Iran before diplomatic relations between the two countries were restored.
The statement came in response to reports about a proposed ministerial meeting on developments in the Strait of Hormuz.
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei said Friday that Tehran would organize the meeting, hosted by Oman, at the foreign minister level and with the participation of eight countries bordering the Gulf.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi earlier Sunday told the London-based Arabic-language news outlet Al-Araby Al-Jadeed that “the main, and indeed the only, agenda of this meeting is the new maritime route in the Strait of Hormuz.”
He said Iran and Oman had finalized an agreement setting out the new route, along with maps and a joint statement detailing the arrangements.
He stressed that the agreement with Oman “by no means” signifies the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz.
Bahrain is among Gulf states that have been targeted by Iran during its confrontation with the US.
Tehran has previously targeted sites it said were linked to US forces in Bahrain, including Isa Air Base, in retaliation for US strikes against Iranian targets.
The US and Israel launched attacks on Iran in February, prompting Tehran to retaliate against Israel and US military targets across the region.
The US and Iran signed the Islamabad Memorandum in June with Pakistani and Qatari mediation, but its implementation later stalled amid disagreements over the Strait of Hormuz.
The US resumed military attacks on Iran in August, with Tehran responding by striking US military assets in several Arab countries aligned with Washington.
