CAIRO/DUBAI: Qatar's prime minister will visit Tehran on Thursday in an effort to relaunch diplomacy after the US and Iran traded recriminations over Washington's promise to increase economic pressure on Tehran by targeting its trade partners for sanctions. Qatar, a Gulf neighbour of Iran and a US ally, has served as a back-channel negotiator for the warring parties and played a direct role in securing the June ceasefire that briefly led to a cessation of hostilities. The visit comes as the war nears its sixth month with fighting largely paused but no diplomatic breakthrough in sight.
The two sides remain at odds over control of the Strait of Hormuz, a chokepoint for global oil supplies that Tehran has used as leverage. The memorandum of understanding broke down in part because of differences over the narrow waterway between Iran and Oman where one-fifth of the world's oil supplies passed before the war began on February 28. The guns have gone mostly silent - the US military's Central Command has not reported any attacks on Iran for nearly a month. Washington appears to be leaning more on economic pressure by announcing plans to cut Iran off from its trading partners with increased sanctions.
Hormuz oil flows have fallen to a three-month low, with just 5 million barrels per day transiting on Monday, according to the latest ship-tracking data. Before the war, the strait carried roughly 20 million barrels per day of crude oil. Iran's Revolutionary Guards said on Wednesday that Iran and Oman had agreed how to share the waterway and its revenues, but a senior Iranian source later said the two countries were still working on the details of an agreement. Despite an aerial bombardment earlier in the war that severely diminished Iran's conventional forces, Tehran has maintained enough missile and drone capability to attack Gulf neighbours that house US military bases and disrupt oil tankers in the strait.
The UN's International Maritime Organization has reported 70 incidents in the Strait of Hormuz since February 28 that have killed 19 seafarers. Thousands of others have died, mostly in Iran and Lebanon, since the US and Israel attacked Iran with the stated goals of denying Iran a nuclear weapon, helping Iranians topple their government, and destroying Iran's missile programme. Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani will discuss the continuation of Qatar's mediation efforts and other developments in the region during his visit to Tehran on Thursday, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei said.