TEHRAN: Iran’s foreign ministry on Monday said the United States was not involved in recent talks with Oman over the administration of the strategic Strait of Hormuz.
“These talks have no connection with the United States. They are a bilateral matter between Iran and Oman, and they are continuing,” ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei said at a weekly press briefing, adding that the waterway “remains closed.”
Deputy foreign ministers from the two countries held talks on Friday and Saturday on “common principles and operational mechanisms” to ensure the safe passage of shipping through the strait.
Traffic through Hormuz, a vital global shipping route, has been under Iranian control since the outbreak of war with Israel and the United States on February 28.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards have in recent days turned back multiple vessels, including six earlier on Monday, that attempted to transit the strait outside the route designated by the Islamic republic.
