ISLAMABAD — Iran wants international support to toll the Strait of Hormuz, but Gulf nations were siding with the US against the plan Tuesday as they met to coordinate a response to the crisis.
“During the summit, a number of topics and issues related to regional and international developments were discussed, as well as the coordination of efforts in response to them,” the Saudi Press Agency said of the Gulf powwow, which is being held in Jeddah in Saudi Arabia.
Leaders of the Gulf Cooperation Council gathered days after Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi flew to Oman to float a potential arrangement that would see the two countries straddling the strait split the waterway, multiple US and regional sources told The Post.
But Oman — which was among the GCC countries Iran targeted with strikes in the first weeks of the war — rejected the Iranian proposal, leaving Tehran in a bind as it attempts to assert sovereignty over the critical oil chokepoint.
“They will forgive, but they will never forget what Iran has done,” a source familiar with mediation efforts told The Post of the Gulf allies.
“They have no interest in paying for Iran’s reconstruction. As a result of all of this, they are not going to allow Iran either control the strait nor toll ships coming through.”
Oman’s stance backs that of President Trump’s: that Iran cannot be allowed to toll nations for access to the strait, former Pentagon official and Atlantic Council fellow Alex Plitsas told The Post.
“The GCC states support the administration’s assertion that Iran cannot control the Strait of Hormuz nor be able to toll it or be able to close the straits at any time of their choosing,” he said.
“Iran’s strategy of attacking GCC states as it means to put pressure on the United States absolutely backfired and set relations back with their Gulf neighbors by decades,” Plitsas said.
“It was a grave and profoundly stupid mistake.”
The expert also warned that the powerful, oil-rich nations’ “patience is wearing thin” as the waterway remains closed and the threat of further Iranian attacks hangs above their heads.
General negotiations between the US and Iran in Islamabad in Pakistan are currently stalled.
“Renewed or continued Iranian aggression toward Gulf States will not go unanswered in perpetuity,” Plitsas said.
Tuesday’s meeting was the first the GCC held since the war began two months ago.
As the conflict soon enters its third month, Qatar on Tuesday said Doha wants to see a swift end to the war — but that it must be lasting.
“We do not want to see a return to hostilities in the region anytime soon,” Qatar’s foreign ministry spokesman, Majed al-Ansari, said at a press conference.
“We do not want to see a frozen conflict that ends up being thawed every time there is a political reason.”
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