Is the Iranian card off the table? Vance reveals dramatic development in Hormuz

Vance added: “The Iranians, in various ways, have been signaling that they want to tighten their grip on the Strait of Hormuz. So under a theoretical agreement, what would be an acceptable status quo in the Strait for you? Our expectation is that we will see the same amount of oil and gas coming out of the Gulf as we saw before the conflict began. That’s what the Iranians have told us they intend to do. And that’s what the entire coalition of Gulf states wants to do.

“But, you know, we don’t trust them — we verify. We actually look not at people’s words, but at their actions. There are elements within the Iranian system, of course, who are talking about charging a toll. The Iranians have told us that they have no plans to charge a toll for passage through the Strait of Hormuz. But again, we’ll see what steps actually happen.

“What’s been happening over the last week or so is that the Iranians and the Gulf states, particularly Oman, have been having discussions about how to ensure safe passage for vessels. The one problem, of course, is that the Iranians laid a large number of mines at the beginning of the war. So what we’re really working on now is how we can establish a traffic arrangement that will allow ships to pass through the area safely. That includes, of course, clearing mines. That also includes a commitment from the Iranians that they won’t fire on commercial vessels. They’re being hit very hard. They want this to end.”

Under the emerging outline, vessels entering the Persian Gulf would take a route that is within Iranian territorial waters, while vessels leaving it would take a route closer to Oman.