President Donald Trump met Qatar's prime minister at the White House on Monday, as Qatar and other mediators work to bridge a widening gap between Washington and Tehran. The meeting came as US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said there was no breakthrough in sight and described Iran's demands as unrealistic.
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said Iran is ready to negotiate but will not surrender to coercion. Trump said the United States has no intention of escalating the conflict and that the Strait of Hormuz is open. Mediators have floated a two-day proposal that would lift the US blockade and release frozen Iranian funds. Washington has not accepted that proposal, and major differences remain between the two sides. Open questions include whether a sequenced deal covering the blockade, the frozen funds and nuclear inspections can succeed at all.
The Strait of Hormuz sits at the center of the standoff. Before the war, about one-fifth of global oil and liquefied natural gas moved through the narrow waterway. Iranian attacks, shipping restrictions and US military operations have since disrupted traffic. Tanker attacks rose sharply in October and continued into November. Iran claims a tanker struck a mine east of the strait on Sunday, but those reports have not been verified independently.
US Central Command says more than 3,000 vessels have transited the strait with US support over the past six months. Amos Hochstein, however, argued that the heavy US military presence means the strait is not truly open to ordinary commercial traffic. The dispute over how to describe the waterway's status reflects the broader disagreement over who controls its security and on what terms.
Gulf producers are adjusting to the disruption. The United Arab Emirates said its oil exports have risen above prewar levels of 3.1 to 3.2 million barrels per day, and a UAE minister put current exports at about 4.4 million barrels per day. A pipeline to the port of Fujairah allows the UAE to bypass the strait, and the country is expanding storage and export routes to reduce its reliance on the waterway.
The disruption is also raising shipping costs for consumers far from the Gulf, since longer routes and added security risks feed into freight prices. The World Energy Council has urged energy markets to prioritize resilience alongside efficiency, arguing that supply systems need the capacity to absorb shocks like the current ones. Whether Gulf states will take the lead in talks on maritime security, rather than leaving the matter to Washington and Tehran, remains an open question.