Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi indicated on Tuesday that “significant progress” had been achieved in talks with Oman regarding the management of the strategic Strait of Hormuz, according to a statement issued by the Iranian Foreign Ministry, at a time when South Korea announced that it had not taken a decision regarding the deployment of its forces in the strait.
Iranian officials recently said that the agreement between Iran and Oman may be signed “in the coming days.”
For weeks, Iran and the Sultanate have been discussing the future of navigation in the Strait of Hormuz corridor. Tehran announced progress in agreeing on a temporary route for ships to cross.
But Iranian officials stressed that the Strait will not be reopened until the United States responds to Iranian demands, including lifting sanctions on the oil sector, releasing Iranian assets frozen abroad, and lifting the naval blockade of ports.
Iran and the Sultanate of Oman - the two countries bordering the Strait of Hormuz - have indicated their desire to collect fees from ships crossing the strait.
The United States, the Gulf states, and other parties refuse to impose any financial sums for ships crossing the strait.
South Korea announced on Tuesday that it had sent a fact-finding team to “assess the situation on the ground” in the Strait of Hormuz, and confirmed that it had not taken any decision regarding the possibility of deploying forces there.
The South Korean Ministry of Defense said, "The team was sent to study the regional situation and security conditions, and its mission does not presuppose the actual deployment of forces."
She added, "No decision has been made regarding the deployment of forces."
This comes after Tehran warned that any South Korean military contribution to the conflict would have "dangerous consequences."
“Any deployment of military forces or participation by other countries in operations” in the Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz “can only be viewed as direct support for the party responsible for that aggression, and will have serious consequences,” Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei said in a Korean-language post on the
Baghaei warned Seoul against giving in to what he described as “American pressure and intimidation.”
US President Donald Trump has repeatedly pressured his ally, South Korea, to provide assistance in the war, but Seoul denied that Washington had asked it to deploy forces by a specific date.
South Korea's Yonhap News Agency reported, citing officials, that the fact-finding team left for the UAE over the weekend, to assess operational conditions regarding the possible deployment of forces.
The team is expected to return to South Korea this week at the earliest, according to the agency.
The Ministry of Defense refused to comment on the mission’s report, in response to a question from Agence France-Presse.
The vital commercial Strait of Hormuz remains closed to international navigation since the US-Israeli attack on Iran in February, amid faltering talks between the two sides (American and Iranian) to agree on a comprehensive and final ceasefire and reopen the entire waterway to commercial ships and oil tankers.
US President Donald Trump said in recent days that US forces helped facilitate the passage of ships through the strait "at a rate of 30 ships per night."
Secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, Mohsen Rezaei, responded on Sunday, saying that Washington tries every night to help five or six ships cross, but "usually these ships are hit."
On the internal level, the Iranian Tasnim News Agency reported the killing of Abdul Raouf Ishaqi, a military commander in the mobilization forces - Basij - in Baroud district in Sistan and Baluchestan province, without publishing any details.
It was not immediately clear who was behind the attack.
