Circuit Wire — a daily news update from the Circuit.
Iran said on Monday, August 3, that talks with Oman over a temporary shipping route through the Strait of Hormuz are in their final stages, a day after President Donald Trump said he had called off a major strike on the country. Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi described the Oman talks as close to done. Brent crude fell about 4.6 percent to just over $83 a barrel on the news.
The discussions cover a single temporary corridor to let more vessels move safely, not a full reopening of the waterway, foreign ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei said. Iran has controlled Hormuz since the war in the Middle East began on February 28 and has shown no sign of allowing free passage. Tehran and Muscat have been weighing a revival of the so-called middle passage, a lane Iran has mined and that may need clearing before ships can use it regularly.
Trump said on Sunday that a deal to open the strait could be near and that fresh talks with Iran would begin Monday afternoon, though he gave no detail on who would take part. He said he had canceled the strikes, which he claimed would have been the largest since World War II, after Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar urged him to give diplomacy more time. Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman spoke with Trump over the weekend and pressed for calm.
The chokepoint remains all but closed. Few ships are transiting with transponders on, and those that do largely hug Iran's northern shore with Tehran's permission or pass near Omani waters to the south. U.S. embassies across the region warned Americans on Saturday to prepare for flight cancellations and airspace closures. Iran has struck at Kuwait, Bahrain and shipping near Hormuz over the past two months, and Saudi Arabia has been hit by Iran-backed militias in Iraq and by the Houthis in Yemen.
Trump said the United States remains "locked and loaded" and wants the strait fully opened alongside an end to Iran's nuclear program. Israel, which launched the war with the United States in late February, is waiting out the latest diplomatic push. Circuit Wire last reported on the Hormuz track on July 27, when both sides paused strikes as talks gained ground.
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