The top diplomats of Iran and Oman met Tuesday to discuss a phased approach to managing ship traffic through the the Strait of Hormuz, which remains largely shut down nearly six months after the Iran war began.
The talks came after an oil tanker was disabled in an attack off the coast of Oman, underscoring the ongoing dangers for shipping companies
attempting to use the waterway while it's under Iranian control.Here’s a look at the latest developments
in the Iran war and the wider Middle East. Full coverage can be found here.
Omani Foreign Minister Badr al-Busaid met Tuesday with his Iranian counterpart, Abbas Araghchi, in Tehran to discuss a framework for managing ship traffic in the Strait of Hormuz.
A joint statement by the two countries, located on opposite sides of the narrow strait, said the proposed framework includes a “joint temporary navigational corridor” and both countries working to clear mines from the waterway.
The statement said Iran and Oman will continue technical negotiations toward establishing a permanent shipping corridor and an agreement on the future administration of the strait.
About a fifth of the world’s traded oil passed through the strait before the U.S. and Israel attacked Iran on Feb. 28.
It’s unknown whether the U.S. will accept the emerging deal. U.S. President Donald Trump last week threatened to bomb Oman if it “gets in the way” of American efforts to reopen the strait.
Iran’s president and other senior officials also discussed the strait with a delegation from Pakistan that left Tehran on Tuesday following talks on reviving negotiations to end the Iran-U.S. conflict, the Pakistani military said.
A strike on an oil tanker Monday night off Oman's coast disabled the ship's engine, the British military's United Kingdom Maritime Trade Organization reported. It said all crew were reported safe.
There were no immediate reports of any environmental impact.
Iran periodically fires at vessels attempting to transit the strait to enforce its control of the waterway, though there was no immediate claim for Monday's attack. The U.S. has also fired on vessels while imposing a blockade of Iranian ports.
Tuesday marked one year since Israeli soldiers killed 22 Palestinians, including journalists and rescue workers, in a double strike on a hospital in Gaza that provoked global outrage. No one has been held accountable.
Israeli officials said the target was a suspected Hamas camera on the roof of Nasser Hospital. Among those killed were Reuters cameraman Hussam al-Masri and Mariam Dagga, a visual journalist who worked for The Associated Press and other news organizations.
Despite repeated requests by the AP, the army has not provided details about the investigation or a timeline for when it could be completed. Rights groups say Israel rarely holds troops accountable for killing Palestinians, pointing to long investigations that rarely lead to prosecution.
China's Foreign Ministry says it is closely following plans announced by U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent to expand sanctions to entities and individuals linked to Iran, including some based in China.
Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian said China-Iran cooperation “should not be disrupted or undermined,” noting that it has conformed with international law.
China is one of Iran's biggest trading partners and purchases the majority of its total oil exports.
The Treasury Department on Monday said it was imposing sanctions on nearly 60 Iran-linked entities, including several based in China. It stopped short of imposing secondary sanctions on countries that trade with Iran.
An Israeli airstrike on Tuesday killed at least one Palestinian and wounded four others in southern Gaza, hospital officials said.
The strike hit a group of people northwest of the city of Khan Younis, according to the city’s Nasser hospital. The Israeli military said it struck a suspected militant in the area.
The death was the latest among Palestinians in Gaza since an October ceasefire attempted to halt more than two years of war between Israel and Hamas.
Israel on Tuesday seized a U.N.-run facility housing a vocational school on the outskirts of Jerusalem, advancing its campaign against the U.N. agency that provides humanitarian services to millions of Palestinian refugees across the Mideast.
Israel’s Foreign Ministry said the agency, known as UNRWA, does not own the land. Israel cited similar reasoning when its forces demolished the agency’s former east Jerusalem headquarters in January.
The U.N. interim Mideast coordinator, Ramiz Alakbarov, called the seizure unlawful and said it deprived 340 Palestinian refugees of educational services.
Israel has accused UNRWA of anti-Israel bias and at times of employing Palestinian militants. The United Nations and UNRWA have denied the accusations and say they investigate credible allegations and act quickly to purge suspected militants among staff.
A far-right Israeli lawmaker smashed a Palestinian memorial in the occupied West Bank on Tuesday after entering the village of Madama with an Israeli military escort.
Video showed Tzvi Succot, a Knesset member from the Religious Zionism party, destroying the monument with a hammer while Israeli soldiers stood nearby. Succot said the monument glorified terrorism.
The Israeli military said it authorized and provided security for Succot’s trip, but did not grant him permission to demolish the monument.
