Oman

Oman occupies the south-eastern tip of the Arabian Peninsula, its northern coast forming the southern shore of the strait carrying roughly a fifth of the world's daily oil trade. Sultan Haitham bin Tariq governs from Muscat, continuing a Foreign Policy built on studied neutrality: relations with Iran survived every round of US sanctions, and Oman's Ibadi Islamic identity gives it theological distance from both the Sunni-Shia divide and the Iran-Saudi rivalry, a position trusted by Tehran and tolerated by Washington that no other Gulf state occupies.

Oman has served as the primary US-Iran backchannel since at least 1981 and hosted the secret pre-negotiations that produced the 2015 JCPOA framework, a diplomatic role the current war has not displaced, only narrowed to the single question of Hormuz access.

Muscat's claim to authority over the strait rests on geography rather than politics: its territorial waters cover the strait's southern half, so any transit-management scheme it proposes sits inside sovereign waters neither Tehran nor Washington can simply override by force. Foreign Minister Badr Albusaidi runs the channel day to day; Sultan Haitham sets how FAR Muscat will bend. The event record includes and .