India, July 29 -- Iran and Oman have exchanged competing proposals for the future management of the Strait of Hormuz, with Muscat presenting a voluntary-fee model modelled on the Strait of Malacca and Tehran pushing back with a counter-proposal that would give Iran unilateral authority over its side of the waterway - a gap that diplomats and analysts say remains wide, even as the US has suspended its air strikes and both sides signal cautious openness to a negotiated outcome.

Oman presented Iran with a proposal for a joint regional mechanism to manage the Strait of Hormuz based on voluntary fees, Reuters reported on Tuesday, citing an unnamed Gulf source and a Western diplomat.

Under the Omani proposal, which is said to have regional ba...