Iran's head negotiator with the US Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf left Tehran for Muscat to discuss bilateral cooperation and Iranian arrangements for administering the Strait of Hormuz with Oman's ruler, Entekhab reported on June 22.

The trip takes Iran's push to assert authority over the strait into direct talks with Oman, the established mediator in Iran's negotiations with Washington and the state whose southern coastline carries one of the two shipping routes through the waterway. Roughly a fifth of the world's oil and gas passed through Hormuz before the war.

Ghalibaf, who is also the speaker of parliament, will meet Sultan Haitham bin Tariq to discuss raising bilateral cooperation and joint efforts to consolidate Iranian arrangements for running the strait, according to the report.

Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi is accompanying the delegation, it said.

The visit follows Araghchi's statement that Iran and Oman would soon issue a joint statement on administering the strait, and his assertion that the waterway's future management would not resemble the past.

Iran has said it intends to charge ships a "service fee" for passage, while acknowledging that levying a transit toll is not permitted under international law and would require a joint effort with Oman and the US.

Iran has twice declared the strait closed to shipping in recent weeks, citing what it called Israeli violations of a ceasefire in Lebanon, claims rejected by the US military, which says commercial traffic continues to flow and that Iran does not control the waterway.

The disputes over Hormuz have run alongside a fragile US-Iran process, with both sides establishing a road map for a final deal within 60 days at talks in Switzerland.