A lull in fighting between the U.S. and Iran has accelerated diplomacy aimed at a short-term fix for the most contentious issue of the war—restarting shipping through the Strait of Hormuz.
Iran and Oman huddled throughout the weekend and into Monday to hammer out an arrangement for ships to safely pass through a waterway that carried 20% of the world’s oil production before the war slowed traffic to a crawl.
The narrowly focused talks aren’t meant to end the U.S.-Iran conflict once and for all, but mediators hope even a temporary agreement on an important issue could cool tempers, allow a lifting of maritime blockades and ultimately juice talks on implementing a preliminary peace deal that Washington and Tehran reached in June.