The US has held off striking Iran for a second consecutive night while an Omani delegation negotiates in Tehran over shipping through the Strait of Hormuz. Oil reached $100 a barrel this week for the first time in two months as the fighting upended an interim deal signed last month.
The US paused strikes on Iran for a second consecutive night as mediators sought to stop the warring parties returning to full-blown war after two weeks of escalatory tit-for-tat attacks. The US military has not reported any air strikes against Iran since it attacked overnight on Thursday, while Iranian forces have not mounted any assaults on American bases in the region since Friday.
That pause stops short of a wider stand-down. The US military said on Saturday that its naval blockade on Iranian ports remained in place.
Oman shuttles between Tehran and a Hormuz transit formula
An Omani delegation spent Friday and Saturday in Tehran seeking a provisional arrangement with Iran to manage the transit of shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, which has become the key battleground of the conflict. The negotiations focused on how much shipping should be directed through a southern corridor along the Omani coast and how much should transit through Iranian waters, people briefed on the talks said.
Mike Waltz, the US ambassador to the UN, said president Donald Trump was "giving the talks some space" before deciding whether to resume strikes.
Iran's foreign ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei said the Omani delegation left Tehran on Saturday, describing the talks as constructive and saying some progress had been made. However, he said there was no change in the status of traffic through the strait, which Iran declared it had closed during the latest escalation.
Oil hits $100 as the June memorandum unravels
The hostilities were the most intense since the parties agreed to a ceasefire in April, and the fighting pushed oil prices to $100 a barrel this week for the first time in two months. Before the war, about a fifth of the world's oil and gas passed through the strait.
Both sides had signed a memorandum of understanding on June 17 that extended the April ceasefire by 60 days, during which Iran would gradually reopen the strait without charging ships fees. That process broke down after Iran began to attack ships that attempted to transit along Oman's coast, a route Tehran called unauthorised.
Strikes, blockade and missile barrages
Washington answered by striking southern Iran, including infrastructure such as bridges and ports, reimposing the naval blockade and revoking a waiver that allowed Iran to sell oil. Iran retaliated by firing barrages of missiles at US bases in Bahrain, Kuwait, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Qatar.
Two American soldiers were killed in an Iranian missile attack on a base in Jordan and a third is believed to have died in the assault. Another US serviceman was killed while trying to detonate an Iranian drone in northern Iraq.
Waltz denied reports in the New York Times that Trump had held fire due to low supplies of missile interceptors, though he acknowledged that a lot of the US military's stockpiles were depleted due to the war in Ukraine.
Source: Financial Times
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