The United States and Iran have agreed to halt reciprocal attacks that have caused a resurgence in the Gulf after the signing of a memorandum of understanding between the two countries, a US official said on Sunday.
"Technical talks on all areas of the MoU are set to continue," the U.S. official said in an email to AFP, adding that "both sides will stop (their attacks) for the time being, and ships can move freely" in and around the Strait of Hormuz.
The U.S. official did not confirm U.S. media reports that the Americans and Iranians are scheduled to meet Tuesday in Qatar with the Strait of Hormuz on the agenda.
Iranian-American meeting in Qatar
Talks are taking place in Qatar on Tuesday to resolve disputes over the Strait of Hormuz, through which 20 percent of the world's oil and liquefied natural gas normally passes, Axios said.
Later, a source familiar with the contacts and mutual mediation said that the Iranian and American technical teams tasked with working on the implementation of the memorandum of understanding would meet in Doha "within days".
Since Thursday, two ships have been targeted by missiles of unknown origin, which the U.S. military accused Tehran of launching, and to which Iran responded by bombing Iran for two days in a row.
Tehran responded by targeting neighboring Gulf countries with missile and drone attacks on Kuwait and Bahrain.
While Iran and Oman control both sides of the Strait of Hormuz, the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea guarantees the right of "transit" in the straits used for international navigation, such as those that connect the Gulf to the world.
The agreement, which Tehran has not ratified, stipulates that "all ships and aircraft" have "the right of transit that shall not be impeded," and that this "freedom of navigation and overflight" should be for "the sole purpose of continuous rapid transit."
Iranian-Omani Hormuz Committee Meeting
Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Gharibabadi said on his account on the X platform on Monday , June 29, that Iran and Oman held the first meeting of the Joint Committee on the Strait of Hormuz in Muscat.
Gharibabadi said the two sides exchanged views on the sovereign rights of the two countries bordering the strait as well as its future management, in accordance with the interim agreement signed by Tehran and Washington this month.
Iran has expressed discomfort with Oman's announcement of the opening of a temporary alternative shipping lane, reportedly a U.N.-coordinated initiative to evacuate stranded seafarers and vessels, which has been used by dozens of ships this week.
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