Progress In Middle East Talks. US, Iran Need To Blink Again For Truce To Resurface

Iranian officials and their Omani counterparts have made progress in talks to restore a defunct ceasefire, according to a report.

On Sunday, one Iranian official told CBS News that the talks to reopen the contentious Strait of Hormuz are moving in a positive direction.

The latest round of diplomacy comes amid reports that US President Donald Trump ordered a pause in the pounding of Iran that continued for 13 days before a pause ordered Friday.

Trump directed the US Central Command not to conduct strikes on Iran on Friday, Axios reported.

The Axios report said the decision was intended to give space for diplomacy. It is also seen as a tacit acknowledgement that the US strikes do not serve any purpose as they have reached its effectiveness.

Though Trump does not seem to worry much about the escalation of hostilities and its impact on domestic politics, Vice President J D Vance and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Dan Cain have reportedly raised concerns during a White House meeting.

The latest round of diplomacy by Oman and Iran aims to reopen waterways around the Strait, and is reportedly linked to the US pause on its strikes in Iran for the last two consecutive nights.

The pause has come despite claims by Trump that forces are ready to relaunch the strikes any moment.

Taking a cue from the pause, Tehran has also reportedly halted strikes on Gulf nations, which it sees as aiding the US Central Command, Sunday.

US Ambassador to the United Nations Mike Waltz also acknowledged that that the pause was aimed at “giving diplomacy some space.”

“It’s giving diplomacy a little bit of time. The president tried diplomacy last year, tried it this year. He is a president of peace. He is giving diplomacy a chance,” Waltz said.

The latest round of talks are also revolving around an idea to have a shorter ceasefire of two weeks around the Strait of Hormuz, a contentious waterway that carried nearly a fifth of the world’s energy and oil cargoes before the conflict began. This, according to Omani mediators, would pave the way for a resumption of talks that were scuttled by Iranian strikes on commercial vessels and US retaliatory strikes.

It is not known if a separate diplomatic channel opened by Pakistan and Qatar is also pursuing this idea.

The Axios report said the US military is still chalking out plans in case Trump orders a wave of strikes.

Trump maintains that the US has the option of continuing strikes or even escalating them, including “knocking out everything they have.”

A section of the US administration is of the view that engaging Iran diplomatically, even if that is via mediators, is a better strategy at this point of time. This is perhaps why Trump reportedly said the “smarter strategy” is to “make a deal” with Iran.

“We’re talking to [the Iranians] right now. I think they’re getting more and more serious as the days go by. We’re locked and loaded and ready to go, but we’re talking to them,” Trump said on Friday. That is more of rhetoric, but Washington is not convinced that Iran is ready to make a deal at the moment.

“But I’m willing to listen,” the US president said. Now Iran needs to speak up.