<\/p>\n
Iran suggested negotiations to get more ships moving through the Strait of Hormuz are making progress, after President Donald Trump called off what he said was a major attack on the Islamic Republic.<\/p>\n
Oil fell on Monday, with Brent crude down about 4.5% to just over $83 a barrel, after Iran\u2019s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, said discussions between Tehran and Oman over management of the strait are in the final stages.<\/p>\n
Trump said Sunday that a deal to open the waterway may be close and that new unspecified talks with Iran would begin on Monday.<\/p>\n
Still, there\u2019s little clarity on the Iran-Oman negotiations and no sign the Islamic Republic is willing to allow vessels free passage through the waterway, which Trump has demanded. Instead, Iran said it\u2019s talking to Oman about a new route and not about whether the strait as a whole will be open or closed.<\/p>\n
The discussions with Oman are about a \u201ctemporary\u201d route to ensure the safety of ships, Esmail Baghaei, an Iranian foreign ministry spokesman, said on Monday. \u201cWe are not currently negotiating with the United States.\u201d<\/p>\n
Last week, Bloomberg reported that Muscat and Tehran were discussing reopening the so-called middle passage through Hormuz. It has, however, been mined by Iran, according to people familiar with the matter, and could have to be cleared before vessels use it on a regular basis.<\/p>\n
ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n
CONTINUE READING BELOW<\/p>\n
The chokepoint, a vital conduit for supplies of oil, liquefied natural gas and other commodities such as fertilizers, remains all but shut. Hardly any ships are sailing through, at least with their transponders turned on. Most that do are going on a northern route close to Iran\u2019s shores with Iranian permission, or on a southern one nearby Omani territory.<\/p>\n
Trump, early on Sunday Iran time, said he had canceled strikes \u2014 the likes of which he claimed have \u201cnot seen since World War II\u201d \u2014 after lobbying from Iran and Middle Eastern countries. He later said Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar had all urged him to give diplomacy more time.<\/p>\n
Saudi Arabia\u2019s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman held a call with Trump over the weekend. The kingdom\u2019s de facto leader \u201cstressed the need to prioritize dialogue to reduce escalation and the importance of making every possible effort to achieve calm,\u201d according to the main Saudi news agency.<\/p>\n
Gulf Arab states are allies of the US but have become exasperated by the continuation of the war, now in its sixth month. They are concerned that any escalation would see Iran lash out by firing more drones and missiles at them, damaging their infrastructure and hurting their economies.<\/p>\n
Iran has regularly attacked the likes of Kuwait and Bahrain in the past two months, during skirmishes with the US. Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Qatar have suffered less, but have seen their ships hit near Hormuz. Saudi Arabia has also been attacked by Iran-backed militias in Iraq and by the Houthis, based in Yemen, in the past two weeks.<\/p>\n
Trump signaled he wouldn\u2019t wait long for a diplomatic resolution and urged mediators and Iran to \u201crapidly make a deal.\u201d It must include, he said, the \u201cimmediate, complete, and total opening\u201d of the strait, as well as \u201can end to Iran\u2019s nuclear threat.\u201d<\/p>\n
ADVERTISEMENT:<\/p>\n
CONTINUE READING BELOW<\/p>\n
The US, he said, remains \u201clocked and loaded.\u201d He suggested the weekend strikes would have been carried out with Israel, which isn\u2019t known to have struck Iran since a first ceasefire deal in April.<\/p>\n
While implying the attacks would have been the biggest since the Iran war erupted in late February, Trump said he is \u201cnot looking to kill people.\u201d US embassies across the region on Saturday had warned Americans to be prepared for flight cancellations and airspace closures.<\/p>\n
The president previously said he would step up the intensity of bombing until Iran reopened the strait. He threatened to eventually hit the country\u2019s civilian infrastructure and power plants, something Tehran has warned it would retaliate against fiercely.<\/p>\n
Israel, which launched the war alongside the US but wasn\u2019t party to an initial Washington-Iran peace deal in June, is waiting out the latest diplomatic push, according to a member of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu\u2019s security cabinet, Zev Elkin.<\/p>\n
There\u2019s \u201csome kind of vector toward an agreement between Iran and Oman,\u201d he told local Army Radio on Sunday.<\/p>\n
\u00a9 2026 Bloomberg<\/p>\n
#Iran #Hormuz #talks #underway #Trump #calls #strikes<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Iran suggested negotiations to get more ships moving through the Strait of Hormuz are making…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4],"tags":[433,504,376,1093,3741,721,10437],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stock999.top\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12696"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stock999.top\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stock999.top\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stock999.top\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stock999.top\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12696"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stock999.top\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12696\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stock999.top\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12696"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stock999.top\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12696"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stock999.top\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12696"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}