Oman’s Neutral Status Under Pressure Amid War in Iran
On March 26, satellite imagery of the port of Sohar showed nearly twice as many vessels as in December, before the war on Iran began. Thirteen days earlier, two drones had come down in Sohar province. One struck the al-Awahi industrial area and killed two foreign nationals.
Oman was not a party to this war. Only days before the US and Israeli strikes on February 28, Muscat had been mediating between Iran and the United States. The following day, two drones targeted the port of Duqm. For decades, Oman has relied on two assets that seemed to reinforce each other.
The first is its neutrality. Muscat maintains ties with both Washington and Tehran, and both use it as a diplomatic channel. The second is its geography. Sohar, Salalah and Duqm are, in the words of the maritime intelligence firm Windward, the only major ports in the region located outside both the Hormuz and Bab al-Mandeb threat zones.
In peacetime, this geography strengthened Oman’s value as a neutral intermediary, while its diplomatic standing helped protect its strategic position. The war has turned these two assets against each other. The more the Gulf’s trade has come to depend on Oman’s coast, the more every side has wanted a say over what Muscat does with it.
Oman’s Ports Become Key Alternative for Regional Trade
Some of that trade found another door. In September, Oman’s transport minister said recent developments had shifted part of the region’s traffic towards Omani ports. Sohar alone handled 52 million tons of cargo in the first half of 2026, up 52% on a year earlier, with ship-to-ship transfers accounting for about 24 million tons. Qatar, according to the Oman Observer, designated Sohar, Salalah and Duqm as key alternatives to its own Hamad Port. In August, Bloomberg reported that Saudi Aramco was offering cargoes for ship-to-ship transfer from locations including Sohar, a possible sign, the agency said, that crude from inside the Gulf was being shuttled out to Omani waters for sale.
Even the Gulf’s long-term escape routes run through Oman. Hafeet Rail, the 238-kilometer line linking Sohar to the UAE’s rail network, is due to begin trial runs in the fourth quarter of 2027, according to Oman’s transport minister. Until then, there is no direct rail link from Oman’s ports outside the strait to UAE markets. So the back door is open, but the corridor behind it is still under construction.
Pressure Mounts as Iran Denies Involvement in Attacks
Being useful has not bought Oman protection. Drones hit Duqm on March 1 and again on March 3, struck fuel tanks at Salalah on March 11, and killed two people in Sohar on March 13. Tehran denied involvement in the Salalah strike, but the attacks came as Iran expanded its strikes across the Gulf.
Since then, the pressure has been mostly diplomatic, and it has come from more than one direction.
In July, Oman put forward a plan, reportedly backed by other Gulf states, to manage the strait jointly with Iran and collect voluntary fees from shipping, modelled on the mechanism used in the Strait of Malacca. Tehran rejected it. Iran’s deputy foreign minister Kazem Gharibabadi said a route split between Iranian and Omani waters “would not address our national security concerns.” A senior Iranian official told Reuters that Oman was a “valuable neighbour,” but that a 50-50 arrangement would not serve Iran’s interests.
As of late August, Muscat had not publicly said that it intended to join Iran in controlling the strait. By September, Tehran was describing a corridor it said had been agreed with Muscat, with entry and exit points under
Original Article: Oman Stayed Neutral. Its Ports Couldn’t. — Moroccoworldnews