https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/8/3/trump-says-new-iran-negotiations-starting-what-we-know
The GCC - Arab Gulf State coalition - seem interested in watching and waiting on bilateral Oman - Iran talks.
How the U.S - Saudi nuclear enrichment "deal" will fare, and fit into something more wide reaching seems an open question. Israel is as always, an impediment. Or seems so. They will be having elections in the fairly near future, and Bibi may be ousted. Or not?
Organized and scripted "settler violence" in line with "Greater Israel" long term aims of that nation seem to be either escalated or more widely reported in mainstream U.S. reporting. It could be both.
UPDATE: While admitting he'd been serving the pecuniary interests of his oil donor cronies he bitched about their continued present hosing of consumers in the U.S. with midterms approaching. Or explain that item differently. It seems to say what it says.
FURTHER: A Google Analytics readership check indicated a recent boosted readership from folks in Singapore. Of all places? One strait here, one strait there, here a strait, there a strait, everywhere a strait strait . . . No. They would not think to do something like that. They have no military to make it stick.
FURTHER: Perhaps MBS mentioned to Trump that the Saudi Red Sea outlet gaining hostile attention was a game changer, and the Gulf Arabs needed to get serious about working something out. One expects Trump would hear it, if MBS said it.
Donald Trump appears to have been cut out of a potential new deal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz.
Iran and Oman are close to finalising an agreement to restart shipping traffic in the strait by charging commercial ships for passage and splitting the fees, according to several officials.
Vessels heading into The Gulf would transit a channel controlled by Iran close to its coast, while those exiting would use a channel close to Oman.
The discussions were reported by The New York Times after Tehran publicly rejected Mr Trump’s claim that the US and Iran were negotiating their own deal to reopen the strait and end the war.
In a furious tirade on social media, the US president later accused the Islamic Republic of being “unbelievably duplicitous”.
Trump said THAT? Calling somebody else "duplicitous?" Continuing the quote:
Iranian officials said there would be no toll, but a “service fee” would be applied to cover the environmental impact of the shipping, security for cargo ships and tankers, and staffing.
The revenue from this charge would be divided equally between Iran and Oman.
A US official denied the proposal, saying the Iranian account was “not accurate”. The official said any “temporary” routes established through the strait would not involve approval or permission from Iran, or any tolls.
Either way, Iran has said it will not reopen the waterway until Washington lifts its naval blockade of Iranian ports – even if an agreement is struck with Oman.
If finalised, the deal could help ships flow again, in what has become Mr Trump’s biggest prevailing problem with the war he launched alongside Israel in February.
But it would come at a heavy cost, with Iran able to assert more control over the vital corridor than it did before the war began.
Marco Rubio, the US secretary of state, said recently that this scenario would be the opposite of what the US wanted.
He told a meeting of South-east Asian officials: “If we create a precedent in the Middle East where a nation state can decide that they are going to control an international waterway, charge a toll and, if you don’t pay them blow up your ships, we have created a very dangerous precedent, which will repeat itself in other parts of the world.”
On Monday, Mr Trump claimed the two sides were resuming talks to wind down the war after calling off renewed air strikes on the Islamic Republic.
But on Monday Esmail Baghaei, an Iranian foreign ministry spokesman, said no negotiations were being held with the US, adding that Tehran’s talks were only with Oman, and were focused on establishing a route for safe navigation through the strait.