A meeting to be held tomorrow in Oman between Iran and Gulf states on the Strait of Hormuz aims to boost security cooperation in the Middle East, Iranian media reported today, quoted by Agence France-Presse, BTA reports.
The meeting will be held in the Omani port city of Salalah, which is geographically closer to Yemen than to the Strait of Hormuz, which has been at the center of tensions between Iran and the United States since it was blocked by Tehran following the outbreak of war in February.
The talks, in which Bahrain will not participate, are presented as the “first step towards creating a regional framework for security cooperation“ in the Persian Gulf, the Iranian state news agency IRNA reported.
“The meeting will be a major milestone in ensuring stability and security“, said Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baghai, quoted by another Iranian news agency - ISNA.
A merchant ship was again attacked today in the Strait of Hormuz by an unknown projectile, and according to Iranian authorities, one person was killed in the attack. This comes against the backdrop of the exchange of blows between Iran and the United States for control of this strategic strait.
Iranian authorities assure that the meeting is not related to the opening of the strait.
On February 28, Iran was attacked by the United States and Israel. As a result, the country has blocked the Strait of Hormuz, through which about 20 percent of the world's oil and liquefied natural gas trade passed before the war.
This situation, which has been going on for six months, has caused oil prices to rise sharply, and this week they again crossed the symbolic threshold of $ 100 per barrel.
The Strait of Hormuz borders the Iranian coast to the north and the Sultanate of Oman to the south.
The two countries, which maintain good relations, have been discussing the future management of the strait for several weeks, the passage of which was free and unhindered before the conflict began.
The city of Salalah, the administrative center of the Omani province of Dhofar (Dhofar), has a special historical significance for Iranians. In the early 1970s, Iran sent troops to help Oman suppress a separatist uprising in that province, AFP recalls.