Windward AI maritime intelligence tracked three Omani vessels using the traditional international Hormuz channel on 2 April, bypassing the IRGC's Larak Island toll corridor entirely. After completing the transit, the vessels disabled their Automatic Identification System (AIS) transponders, removing themselves from public tracking.
The Philippines deal and the Omani bypass occurred on the same day. The Philippines deal was announced through official diplomatic channels. The Omani manoeuvre was not. The deliberate AIS blackout after a corridor bypass is a signature of vessels that have received clearance through back-channels rather than the official toll mechanism. Vessels that have paid the IRGC toll have no reason to disable their transponders.
Oman has served as the primary Iran-West diplomatic backchannel for decades, facilitating the initial nuclear talks that led to the JCPOA. That history means Muscat's vessels bypassing the IRGC corridor is not an act of defiance; it is more likely an act of arrangement. An undisclosed bilateral exemption is consistent with both the AIS behaviour and Oman's established diplomatic pattern.
If confirmed, Oman's undisclosed deal and the Philippines' announced deal represent two distinct flavours of the same structural problem: the IRGC toll is already operating as a differentiated licensing framework rather than a blunt blockade, with exemptions allocated selectively across a fracturing coalition of former opponents.
