By Ronnie Harui and Kimberley Kao
Oil prices rose Friday on doubts that the Strait of Hormuz will reopen soon, renewing concerns over supply disruptions in the Middle East.
Arab mediators working on a deal with Tehran to reopen the strait said they fear Iran's diplomats, who are under pressure from the country's hard-liners, lack the clout to guarantee compliance even if an agreement is reached.
Mediators said the main Iranian negotiators, Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and Parliamentary Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, swiftly embraced a recent plan to divide traffic through the strait into an inbound lane near Iran and an outbound lane near Oman. The strait is a key waterway through which one-fifth of the world's oil is transported.
However, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, which exerts control over the waterway, pressed for the right to charge fees for transits and to seek more explicit assurances that the U.S. will lift its blockade and sanctions on oil sales, according to the mediators.
