Oman's top diplomat said no transit fees would be imposed in the Strait of Hormuz Thursday after Muscat and Tehran, which border the key waterway, had earlier said they were discussing service "costs".

Badr Albusaidi said "future arrangements regarding the Strait do not entail the imposition of any transit fees," during a meeting of Gulf foreign ministers in the Bahraini capital Manama with US Secretary Marco Rubio -- whose administration has repeatedly opposed any fees or tolls.

A series of tankers made their way out of the Strait of Hormuz on Thursday despite threats to shipping from Iran's paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, using a new route close to Oman's shore that has been promoted by a U.N. maritime agency.

The development comes as Iran and the United States are increasingly debating the terms of the interim deal signed last week aimed at permanently ending the Iran war — from getting ships through the narrow mouth of the Persian Gulf to the future of Iran's stockpile of highly enriched uranium.

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Thursday warned that Iranian tolls on ships passing the Strait of Hormuz would spread to other waterways, risking "total chaos".

"International waterways do not belong to any nation state. This is a foundational principle in the world today, without which the world would be in total chaos," he told a Gulf Cooperation Council meeting in Bahrain.

The deal between Iran and the United States to end the Middle East war is "America's declaration of defeat", Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, the head of the Iranian negotiating team, said on Wednesday.

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that Washington would not accept Iranian tolls or fees on the Strait of Hormuz, as disputes over the vital waterway, nuclear inspections, and missiles exposed early strains in negotiations to end the Middle East war.

Washington and Tehran have signed a preliminary agreement to halt the conflict and concluded a first round of talks in Switzerland, opening a 60-day negotiation period on sanctions relief, Iran's nuclear program and the future of Hormuz.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called again for his country to increase its military autonomy and reduce its reliance on support from the United States, according to a statement released on Tuesday by his office.

"I deeply appreciate the support we have received from our American friends, but we need to break free from dependency and build our own independent armaments network," the premier told reserve officers on a training course in the occupied West Bank.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday said that Israel is "standing against Iran and its proxies."

Iran's president was traveling to Pakistan on Tuesday for talks with officials who have been mediating negotiations between Tehran and Washington on a permanent end to the war in the Middle East.

President Masoud Pezeshkian's visit to Islamabad comes as technical teams are working on details of the deal, following high-level negotiations in Switzerland on Monday led by US Vice President JD Vance and Iran's parliamentary speaker, Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf.

Iran said Tuesday that the United Nations nuclear watchdog's inspectors would not be given access to the country's key nuclear sites that were bombed during the war with Israel and the United States last year.

"We have not had a meeting with the director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, nor do we have any plans for the agency to inspect Iran's nuclear facilities damaged by the U.S. and Zionist military aggression," said foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei.

Israel is deliberately targeting Palestinian children in what has become a key factor in an ongoing "genocide" in Gaza, United Nations investigators charged on Tuesday.

The U.N. Independent International Commission of Inquiry said it had found evidence that "Palestinian children have been deliberately targeted and killed by Israeli security forces", which it called a key factor in establishing "the genocidal intent of the Israeli authorities and security forces to destroy the larger Palestinian group in Gaza".