Top official says Iran, Oman have agreed new temporary route in Hormuz

JUST IN: Iran and Oman agree a new temporary transit route through the Strait of Hormuz, with entry and part of the exit running through Iranian waters, even as Tehran insists the strait stays closed until the US ends the war.

Iran and Oman just agreed a temporary shipping route through the Strait of Hormuz.

This is the waterway that carried a fifth of the world's oil and gas before the US Israel war shut it down in February. You can see it here, that narrow pinch point between Iran and Oman. The new corridor is seven miles wide, and here's the detail that matters. The entry runs through Iranian territorial waters, and part of the exit does too. Tehran holds the door.

The deal came together in Tehran on Tuesday, where Iran's foreign minister Abbas Araghchi hosted Oman's Badr Albusaidi, and these are the two men shaking hands on it. Deputy minister Kazem Gharibabadi went on state TV to stress this is temporary, and the strait stays closed until Washington delivers on the June peace memorandum.

So oil gets a lane, but Iran keeps the keys, and every tanker that uses it sails through Iranian water by Iranian permission. That's not a reopening. That's leverage with a shipping schedule.

This is Liu Yang, reporting for HIT.