Qatar pitches IAEA visits to Iran's bombed sites to reopen Strait of Hormuz

Qatar is leaning on Tehran to let UN nuclear inspectors walk into Iran's bombed nuclear sites — including the ones holding its stockpile of highly enriched uranium — as part of a wider push to reopen the Strait of Hormuz. The emir, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani, raised the proposal with Donald Trump, his office said Friday, without disclosing what was discussed on the call. Qatar's state news agency said the emir stressed the importance of keeping dialogue and diplomacy alive to settle disputes and stop the region sliding further.

The shape of the deal, according to The Guardian: Washington immediately lifts its naval blockade on Iran in the strait and unfreezes a slice of the roughly $8bn in Iranian assets it is holding. In exchange, Iran signs off on visits by International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors to its bombed facilities, building on an abandoned agreement hashed out in Cairo in September 2025. Iran would not have to commit to shipping the enriched uranium out of the country — down-blending the material to cut its potency is among the alternatives on the table. Under the plan, Iran would open the strait on day two, using a route it has already worked out with Oman, and the two would register it jointly with the International Maritime Organisation.

Iran has stacked up more conditions before it opens the waterway: an end to the war in Lebanon, a US troop withdrawal from its coastline, a pledge to ease some economic sanctions and agreement to pay war reparations. The order in which those commitments land has been the sticking point throughout the mediation. A memorandum of understanding once sketched a $300bn reconstruction and development fund to help Iran's economy recover, though it was never clear who would foot the bill.

Tehran is in no rush. Fresh off Trump's midterm wipeout, it has been wary of readmitting the inspectors, saying it has lost faith in IAEA chief Rafael Grossi — accusing him of failing to call out the US bombing of Iranian nuclear sites and breaching his duty under the non-proliferation treaty. Iran also fears anything the inspectors collect could be passed to the US and Israel as targeting data. Trump himself is still weighing another round of strikes on Iranian nuclear sites, though his threats carry less weight inside Iran after vice-president JD Vance tied the war — not just its cost to American consumers — to the Republican collapse at the polls.

Running in parallel, Oman's foreign minister, Badr Albusaidi, has been back on the line with Iran about who runs the strait, the agreed route, how temporary the arrangement would be and how to file it with the IMO — either as a bilateral deal or a joint regional one. Oman's longer-term vision for administering the waterway, in line with the law of the sea, would see shipping companies billed for services rather than charged tolls.

Not every ship is treated the same. Amir Hayat Moqaddam, deputy chair of the Iranian parliament's national security and foreign policy committee, told the Iranian Students' News Agency on Tuesday that vessels from China, India, Qatar and Iraq are cleared to pass, calling the exemptions a matter of mutual interest. Iran charges Indian and Chinese ships transit fees while Qatari vessels go free, he said, with medicine arriving from India and political backing from China. Muyu Xu, a senior crude oil analyst at Kpler, pegs the stakes plainly: of the 10.23m barrels a day of Gulf crude that moved through the strait in October, about 42% went to China and 13% to India. The IRGC navy, meanwhile, said two tankers trying to slip through an unauthorised route in the eastern sector hit mines and caught fire, claiming they had switched off navigation and identification systems and were backed by US forces.