Iran International
Hope for a limited US-Iran agreement gained momentum Friday as regional mediators intensified efforts to stabilize the ceasefire, but the fragile diplomacy faced hostility from Iranian hardliners who cast negotiations as a prelude to renewed conflict.
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei said Friday morning that despite growing speculation surrounding the talks, “no significant progress” had been made.
Diplomatic sources say discussions have focused on a possible memorandum of understanding envisioned as a first step toward broader negotiations, including over Iran’s nuclear program.
The proposed framework would reportedly seek to stabilize the ceasefire and establish mechanisms for managing shipping and navigation disputes in the Strait of Hormuz.
Such an arrangement could provide both sides with temporary political breathing room while reducing pressure on global energy markets already shaken by weeks of conflict and shipping disruptions.
But neither Tehran nor Washington has ruled out military escalation if negotiations collapse before an agreement is finalized.
The Trump administration was preparing on Friday for a fresh round of military strikes against Iran, CBS reported citing sources familiar with the planning, even as indirect diplomacy continues.
The fragility of the process was also underscored Friday by continued attacks from Iranian hardliners who argue the ceasefire itself represented a strategic mistake.
Tehran University lecturer Mohammad Sadegh Koushki said in an interview with the IPTV program Zoom, affiliated with the Fararu website, that Iran had halted military operations just as it had gained the upper hand.
“It’s like a football team that is up by a goal and can score one or two more,” he said. “The momentum of battle was brought to a screeching halt under the name of negotiations and a ceasefire.”
Koushki dismissed the idea that Iran’s conflict with the United States could ultimately be resolved through diplomacy, arguing that years of negotiations had only resulted in greater sanctions and pressure.
Similar arguments appeared across hardline political circles Friday. MP Alireza Salimi said Iran’s control over the Strait of Hormuz was “not negotiable” and that Tehran alone would define and enforce the strait’s “new rules.”
Diplomatic activity nevertheless appeared to intensify throughout Friday as Pakistani Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi returned to Tehran, with CBS citing a senior Pakistani official as saying his meetings had helped negotiations move “in an important direction,” prompting Pakistan’s Field Marshal Asim Munir to join the mediation effort.
Reuters also reported that a Qatari negotiating team arrived in Tehran in coordination with the United States to help secure an agreement aimed at ending the war and resolving outstanding disputes.
Still, similar moments of optimism earlier in 2025 and again in early 2026 ultimately collapsed into waves of US and Israeli strikes on Iran, leaving deep skepticism about the durability of diplomacy.
In a widely circulated post on X, establishment academic Foad Izadi argued that Washington had paid too little a cost for the conflict to abandon long-term pressure on Iran.
“The cycle of attack, ceasefire, negotiation and attack will repeat,” Izadi wrote, warning against rapid concessions or reopening the Strait of Hormuz too quickly.
The remarks reflected broader hardline skepticism toward the diplomatic push even as intensified mediation efforts suggested Tehran and Washington may still see a narrow path toward a limited deal.
Before the war involving the United States, Israel and Iran, Khasab was better known to many Iranians as a stop on informal maritime routes used by fishermen, tourists and fast boats moving between Oman and Iran’s southern coast.
Among those boats were vessels known locally as shooti boats, a term borrowed from Iranian smuggling slang. In Iran, shooti usually refers to high-speed cars that carry untaxed or smuggled goods across long distances, often traveling in groups and avoiding stops.
Around Khasab, traders and locals use the same word for fast boats that make quick crossings to places such as Qeshm and other Iranian coastal points.
For years, the route was associated mostly with informal trade and small-scale smuggling. Iranian cigarettes, alcohol and hashish were moved from Iran to Oman, while consumer goods, home appliances and luxury items were brought back from Oman to Iran.
Iranian fishing boats around Khasab were also a familiar part of the area’s maritime landscape.
A port at the mouth of Hormuz
Khasab is the capital of Oman’s Musandam governorate, an exclave separated from the rest of Oman by the United Arab Emirates.
Its geography gives it unusual importance: the port sits near the mouth of the Strait of Hormuz, about 35 kilometers from Iran, surrounded by dry mountains and fjord-like inlets that before the war were mostly associated with leisure boats and maritime tours.
The blockade has changed the function of the route.
With main passages in the Strait of Hormuz closed to Iranian ships and vessels linked to the Islamic Republic, Khasab has shifted from a local secondary route into one of several alternatives for moving goods into Iran.
Cargoes that previously traveled through standard commercial channels and UAE ports are now, in parts of the transport network, being redirected through Oman and Khasab.
How the route works
A trader told Iran International that since the ceasefire, Iran-bound cargo is first carried from UAE ports to Khasab on vessels flying non-Iranian flags.
The goods are then unloaded at Khasab’s pier onto Iranian vessels, which take them to Iranian ports outside the main controlled routes.
A significant share of the movement is carried by landing craft, the trader said.
Those vessels are useful for the route because they can move through shallow waters and dock at smaller piers. Some can carry hundreds of tons of cargo, and in some cases close to 1,000 tons, including containers, vehicles and heavier freight.
The goods moving through Khasab are not limited to one category, according to trade sources.
They can include cars, spare parts, home appliances, consumer goods, hygiene products and some items linked to petroleum products.
A costly workaround
The route is significantly more expensive than Iran’s previous channels.
One trader told Iran International that moving goods through Khasab costs about six times more than the earlier route from the UAE to the southwestern port city of Khorramshahr.
Still, the trader said the higher cost has become one of the few remaining options for many businesses trying to continue operating.
Local officials in Iran have also referred to the growing use of Omani ports.
Khorshid Gazderazi, head of the Bushehr Chamber of Commerce, said on Thursday that the UAE had previously served as Iran’s main hub for exports and imports, but that after the war began and loading and container departures were disrupted, using Omani ports was placed on the agenda.
He named Khasab, Suwaiq, Shinas and Muscat among the ports being used to move goods.
Morad Zerehi, governor of Bandar Khamir in Hormozgan province, also announced a plan called “boat transport” for the “legal transfer of basic goods from Omani ports” to the county.
A route advertised online
The shift is also visible on Iranian social media, where accounts selling goods have begun advertising the Oman route.
Some accounts have posted videos of goods being moved from Oman, presenting the route as proof that imports into Iran are continuing despite the war and maritime restrictions.
They market Khasab as a new way to bring goods into Iran and encourage customers to keep buying.
But the route also shows the limits of Iran’s workaround.
For traders, Khasab offers a way to keep goods moving. For Iran’s trade network, it is also a sign of how the blockade has pushed ordinary commerce into longer, more expensive and less predictable routes.
