Gulf foreign ministers plan to meet Araghchi in Oman, FT report says

Gulf foreign ministers plan to meet their Iranian counterpart on Monday in a push by Oman and Iran to secure buy-in for a deal temporarily managing shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, Financial Times reported. The meeting would be the first between the top diplomats from the six-member Gulf Cooperation Council and a senior Iranian official since the US and Israel launched the war against Iran in February. The last time Iran’s foreign minister Abbas Araghchi attended a GCC gathering was October 2024 in Doha. Scheduled to be held in the Omani coastal city of Salalah, the details of the meeting were not finalised, but a number of states had confirmed and it was expected to go ahead, the report said, citing two people in know of the development. “For Iran and Oman it is about getting the GCC on board to try and use that to get the US to lift its blockade on Iranian ports,” said one of the people briefed on the matter. GCC states, meanwhile, want to ensure that “whatever is agreed is temporary and they are able to get ships in and out”.