Al Jazeera

By Enes Abuomer and Zaid Sabah

    Diplomatic efforts to reopen the Strait of Hormuz ramp up, with Iran saying talks with Oman are proceeding “positively”.

    US Secretary of State Marco Rubio also reports “progress” in the talks on the strait, while Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent suggests an agreement could be possible as early as “today or tomorrow”.

Iran blames US for delay on Hormuz deal with Oman

    Iran’s Sepah News, citing an informed official, is reporting that US interference and threats of military action are the primary reasons for the delay in reaching an agreement with Oman.

    “The main reason for the delay in the deal with Oman regarding the Strait of Hormuz is US interference and Trump’s threats,” the official was quoted as saying.

    The official added that “as long as US interference and threats of military attack against Iran exist, the agreement will be delayed”. He added, “Iran will not make any agreement under the shadow of threats.”

Iran-Oman talks ‘aim to establish a middle corridor’ in the Strait of Hormuz

    Iran’s state-owned Press TV is reporting that talks between Tehran and Muscat have entered “a new phase”, with a “bilateral understanding within reach”.

    Citing a senior Iranian official, the channel said the talks “aim to establish a middle corridor through the Strait of Hormuz to ensure safe navigation while protecting Iran’s rights as a coastal state”. Once operational, the new corridor would replace both the existing northern and southern routes, according to the official.

    The strait, a waterway just 34km (21 miles) wide, was an international shipping route before Iran closed it in response to US and Israeli attacks. Before the war, vessels followed a UN-adopted two-way traffic separation scheme, with sailing corridors running through both Iranian and Omani waters.

    After the war began, Iran ordered all vessels transiting the strait to follow a new route through its own waters around Larak Island, or the so-called northern route. Following the signing of a ceasefire deal in June, the US pushed for an alternative route hugging the Omani coast, known as the southern route. But Iran opposed the move and launched new attacks on shipping, triggering the latest round of hostilities.

    Earlier on Tuesday, Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei said the ongoing talks between Iran and Oman were “positive” at both the technical and political levels, and were focused on designating safe routes for maritime passage through the Strait of Hormuz.

Trump warns Iran faces ‘hard hit’ if talks fail and Hormuz remains closed

    We have more of the US president’s comments to Fox News.

    He said:

    “Iran will never have a nuclear weapon. They already can’t, but it’s going to be formal.”

    “The strait [of Hormuz] is going to be open very soon, or they’re going to get hit very hard, and then the strait is going to be open.”

•     “We were going to have a tremendous attack, the biggest since World War II, and they called me and said, very politely, ‘Please can we talk  Can we talk ’ And I said, ‘Yes, we can talk. Let’s get it done. Finally, let’s get it done.'”

    “If they back out again, they’re going to get hit really hard; they know that; they understand that.”

    “They wouldn’t be talking if we weren’t doing what we’re doing. We hit them very, very hard, but the hard hit is yet to come, and hopefully, we won’t have to use it. I hope we won’t.”

    Iran’s chief negotiator and parliamentary speaker, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, said the US would “pay the price” for their deaths.

Trump says US having ‘very good discussions’ with Iran

    The US president says Washington and Iran are engaged in “very good discussions”, despite repeated denials from Iranian officials.

    “We’re having very good discussions. They don’t like to admit that, but yeah, it’s a little bit disconcerting,” Trump said during an interview with Fox News.

    “The only thing that matters is action, and they want to make a deal. We’ll see what happens. If they don’t make a deal, it’s going to be too bad,” he added.

Iran-Oman deal on Hormuz could help talks between Iran and US resume

By Rosiland Jordan

    There are now two negotiating tracks connected to the war between the US and Iran.

    The first track, and perhaps the most important for the moment, is the one between Iran and Oman. These two countries are trying to figure out how to negotiate a deal so that commercial ships can transit the Strait of Hormuz and the Sea of Oman without the risk of conflict.

    There is great anticipation among members of the Trump administration that such a deal could be reached in the coming days. There had been some expectation that perhaps it could have happened as soon as Tuesday, but now perhaps it may not be achieved until Wednesday.

    The prospect of such an agreement helped bring the price of crude oil down to below $80 a barrel on Tuesday. And that is a good thing for consumers in the US and around the world, because the price of crude oil has a direct impact, not just on people putting fuel in their vehicles or trying to power their homes, but also on the price of consumer goods.

    The larger question is how quickly, once a deal can be achieved between Iran and Oman, can negotiations resume between the US and Iran  It’s now thought that if they can settle the issue on transit in the Strait of Hormuz, they might be able to get to the larger question of ending the war.

Iraq shipped 30 million barrels of oil via Hormuz in past month

    Iraq exported more than 30 million barrels of crude oil through the Strait of Hormuz between July 4 and August 4, about 29 percent of its pre-war monthly average, AFP reports.

    Before the war, Iraq exported an average of 105 million barrels per month through the strait, mostly from its southern terminals near Basra.

    Ali Nizar, head of Iraq’s state oil marketer SOMO, estimated that between 35.5 million and 37 million barrels passed through the strait in July. He said another 7 million barrels were exported through the Iraq-Turkiye pipeline to Ceyhan.

    Iraq has also transported some crude by tanker trucks through Syria, while plans for a pipeline to Syria’s Baniyas port remain under study.

How much profit are Big Oil companies making

    The closure of the Strait of Hormuz has sent oil prices spiralling and driven up the cost of food and other goods.

    Yet even as the war on Iran has upended markets, so-called Big Oil companies have reaped extraordinary profits from the fallout.

    ExxonMobil: The US’s biggest oil company reported second-quarter earnings of $14.5bn, with adjusted earnings of $14.7bn, and marked its highest quarterly profits in four years.

    Chevron: The US’s second-biggest company reported second-quarter earnings of $12bn, its highest quarterly profit in six years, beating analysts’ estimates.

• Shell: The British-Dutch group, which is Europe’s biggest oil company, more than doubled its second-quarter earnings, reporting nearly $10bn in earnings and exceeding analysts’ expectations,

    TotalEnergies: The French oil giant’s earnings rose 67 percent in the second quarter, its best quarter in nearly three years.

    BP: Another UK oil major reported second-quarter profit of $5.73bn, more than double the $2.35bn it earned a year earlier and above analysts’ forecasts.

    Saudi Aramco: The world’s largest state-owned oil producer also reported sharply higher quarterly earnings – rising 44 percent year-on-year to $32.69bn.

US’s THAAD interceptors depleted by up to 80%: Media

    Earlier, we brought you reporting from Reuters and CBS that said the US has used nearly all of its global stockpile of long-range precision missiles during the war on Iran.

    Now, CNN reports that the US has exhausted nearly 80 percent of its interceptors for the key THAAD missile defence system. The outlet, citing two sources familiar with the matter, reported that “the US military has burned through nearly four-fifths of its THAAD missile inventory compared to pre-war numbers and roughly half of its Patriot interceptors since the start of the war”.

    The dwindling munition reserves, along with concerns from Middle East allies about potential Iranian retaliation, reportedly convinced Trump to call off planned large-scale strikes against Iranian infrastructure, CNN said.

    Pentagon and White House officials pushed back against concerns over inventory shortages.

    Chief Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell told CNN that “America’s military is the most powerful in the world and has everything it needs to execute at the time and place of the President’s choosing”.

    White House spokesperson Anna Kelly added that the military “has more than enough munitions, ammo, and stockpiles to serve all of President Trump’s strategic goals and beyond”.