Qatar said on Tuesday mediators were making progress in ​efforts to end the U.S.-Iran war, driving oil prices lower, although Tehran has denied President Donald Trump’s assertion that talks are already under way.

Benchmark Brent crude fell more than 5% ‌after the comments from Qatar, extending Monday’s steep losses on hopes that an arrangement could soon be reached to restore traffic through the blockaded Strait of Hormuz. But for now, the strait remained virtually shut, with another ship coming under attack while trying to cross it, Reuters reported.

Trump and Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani discussed efforts to narrow differences between Washington and Tehran and improve the prospects for a lasting settlement during a phone call on ​Tuesday, Qatar’s Emiri office said.

It said the emir stressed the importance of dialogue and adherence to the U.S.-Iran Memorandum of Understanding of mid-June that provided for the immediate cessation ​of military operations.

Trump said on Monday that talks with Tehran had started and Iran faced a “last chance” to reach a deal. Iranian officials insisted no ⁠negotiations with the U.S. were taking place.

The U.S. president’s comments on Monday followed his weekend decision to cancel plans for what he described as “massive attacks” on Iran, extending a pattern in which he has ​threatened major military action before pulling back and pointing to diplomatic contacts.

Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei said talks with Oman over transit through the strait were positive and continuing, focused on establishing safe ​shipping lanes, state media reported. He added the route being negotiated was aimed at ensuring the sovereign rights and national security of both Iran and Oman.

Senior U.S. officials struck an optimistic tone, with Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Secretary of State Marco Rubio both pointing to progress in discussions aimed at reopening the strait, a corridor that normally carries about a fifth of global oil and liquefied natural gas shipments.

“There’s been progress made in those talks, but not ​finality yet. We’re hoping that will happen very shortly,” Rubio told reporters, while Bessent said a deal with Iran on reopening Hormuz could be reached by Tuesday or Wednesday.

QUESTIONS ABOUT U.S. MILITARY ​STOCKPILES

More than five months into the war, concerns have been mounting about the sustainability of the U.S. military campaign. The U.S. Army has used up much of its stockpile of highly accurate long-range missiles during the war, ‌according to ⁠three people familiar with the data, raising concerns about the military’s readiness for future conflicts.

Trump has yet to achieve the objectives he set out at the start of the war: dismantling Iran’s nuclear programme, curbing its ability to attack regional rivals and creating conditions for Iranians to overthrow their clerical rulers.

Qatar’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Majed al-Ansari said diplomatic contacts had reached “very progressive stages.”

He said mediators including Qatar, Pakistan and Oman were coordinating closely to facilitate negotiations and exchange draft proposals between Washington and Tehran.

A senior Pakistani security official said: “Our sole goal at this moment is to make both parties at least agree ​to start talking.”

SHIPPING RISKS REMAIN

Iran has halted most ​traffic through Hormuz while Washington maintains a blockade ⁠of Iran-related shipping and ports.

Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthis have also imposed a naval blockade on Saudi Arabia in the Red Sea, further restricting oil export routes.

A cargo vessel reported being struck by an unidentified projectile near the Strait of Hormuz off Oman’s coast, according to the UK Maritime Trade Operations security agency. ​Maritime sources told Reuters on Tuesday the vessel was a dry bulk ship. Its crew abandoned the vessel and one seafarer was missing.

Later on Tuesday, ​India’s Shipping Minister Sarbananda Sonowal ⁠wrote on X that a projectile had hit and sunk an Indian vessel near Yemeni waters, with all 14 on board rescued by Yemen’s coast guard.

Iran has long demanded control over Hormuz, which it says it should share with Oman on the opposite shore. But Tehran rejected an Omani proposal last week that would have allowed shared oversight and the collection of voluntary fees from ships.

A senior Iranian source said Tehran is ⁠seeking full control ​over inbound shipping and visibility over outbound traffic, with the ability to intervene if necessary.

Giving Iran such control would be a ​major shift in the regional balance of power and make it more difficult for Washington to argue that “Operation Epic Fury”, which Trump launched alongside Israel in February, had weakened Washington’s longstanding foe.

“Their big advantage is that they can hurt the regional ​states and the global economy,” said Michael Knights of the Washington Institute.

Conflicting signals from the United States and Iran over the status of talks to end their five-month-old war boosted uncertainty on Tuesday, with the latest attack on ​shipping in the Strait of Hormuz highlighting risks to global energy flows.

U.S. President Donald Trump said the talks were under way on Monday, warning of a “last chance” ‌for Tehran to sign a good deal, but Iran denied that negotiations were being held or planned, Reuters reported.

“They are going on right now,” Trump told reporters at an Oval Office event when asked about the state of negotiations, saying the sides were talking at the request of Iran, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar, among others.

“This is a last chance for them (Iran) to sign a good document.”

The comments followed Trump’s ​weekend decision to call off “massive attacks” he said he had authorized on Iran, as talks were to be held, repeating a pattern in which he has vowed major ​strikes only to cancel them.

Earlier on Monday, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei said no negotiations with the United States were taking place ⁠and no meetings were scheduled.

Iran had no plans to host foreign delegations or send negotiators abroad in the coming days, he said.

Baghaei added that all Iranian negotiators were in the ​country, except for Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi, who was on a religious pilgrimage in Iraq. The only talks underway, he said, were discussions with Oman over management of the Strait of Hormuz.

Shipping ​activity in the Gulf only reinforced the ongoing stand-off since Iran all but shut off transits through the vital route for a fifth of global shipments of crude oil and natural gas before it was blockaded in the war.

One cargo vessel broadcast it had been hit by an unknown projectile near the strait off Oman’s coast, the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) agency said.

Traffic through Hormuz remained largely slow, with three ​tankers and three bulk carriers among the six vessels transiting the strait on Monday, down from seven the previous day, Kpler data showed.

STOCKS RISE, OIL DOWN ON HOPES FOR RESOLUTION

Still, hopes ​that U.S.-Iran tensions were easing again pushed down oil prices, while major stock indexes gained on Monday.

Brent crude futures fell about 7% to around $83.77 a barrel while the Dow closed at a record high. Asian ‌stocks and ⁠oil prices both edged higher on Tuesday.

Gulf officials and analysts say Iran is betting it can outlast Washington by turning the Middle East’s trade routes, shipping lanes and energy infrastructure into pressure points that steadily raise the cost of confrontation.

It hopes such a strategy will convince the United States and its allies that containing the crisis is more costly than accommodating Iran’s demands over the Strait of Hormuz.

“Their big advantage is that they can hurt the regional states and the global economy,” said Michael Knights of the Washington Institute.

In a post on Truth Social later ​on Monday, Trump called Iran’s leadership “unbelievably duplicitous,” saying ​they had asked for a meeting and ⁠more talks were set for the “immediate future.”

He also repeated his assertion that the U.S. Navy had total control over the Strait of Hormuz.

“‘The United States Wall of Steel!’ Nothing gets through to Iran, unless we want it to, and nothing will get through, unless a Deal, ​or Total Surrender, is accomplished,” he wrote.

REPEATED PATTERN

Monday’s events appeared to fit a pattern since Trump launched “Operation Epic Fury” alongside Israel more ​than five months ago. Trump ⁠has threatened military action several times, only to later cite diplomatic contacts as a reason to step back.

Iran, however, has publicly rejected negotiations with Washington since the collapse in early July of a memorandum of understanding both signed the previous month, aimed at ending the conflict.

Trump has yet to achieve the objectives he set out at the outset of the war: dismantling Iran’s nuclear program, ⁠curbing its ability ​to attack regional rivals and creating conditions for Iranians to overthrow their clerical rulers.

Repeated U.S. actions have been ​met by escalating Iranian responses against U.S. forces in the region, Washington’s Gulf Arab allies and shipping, each time ending with Trump stepping back.

The Hormuz dispute remains a central point of contention, with Washington saying the June memorandum required Iran ​to open the strategic waterway, while Tehran says the text explicitly preserved its authority over shipping traffic.

U.S. President Donald Trump said talks ​with Iran will happen on Monday but declined to set a deadline for an agreement after earlier saying he had called off an ‌imminent attack in hopes of quickly reaching a deal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz and resolve the impasse over Tehran’s nuclear capabilities, Reuters reported.

Trump had said late on Saturday on his Truth Social platform that Iran and other Middle Eastern countries had asked for time to complete a deal that would lead to “the Immediate, Complete and Total” reopening of the strait and “an end to ​Iran’s nuclear threat” but that Tehran must “rapidly make a DEAL.”

As he returned to Washington from a weekend in New Jersey, Trump told reporters on Sunday ​that a negotiation would begin on Monday afternoon but did not provide details of where it would take place or ⁠who would be involved.

Asked if there was a deadline for Iran to come to an agreement, Trump declined to answer. “Would I rather make a deal? I’m not ​looking to kill people because people die, a lot of people die, and we don’t want that,” Trump said in response.

Trump has repeatedly issued threats that he would ​escalate the war on Iran he launched along with Israel in late February, only to allow more time for talks, which have so far not led to a comprehensive deal.

Trump’s apparent de-escalation after days of threats of new attacks from each side was the latest twist in the war. Attacks have spread across the Gulf to the Red Sea and even a Mediterranean facility ​in Egypt.

Iran has largely closed the Strait of Hormuz, a conduit for 20% of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas before the start of the war, ​causing energy prices to rise and stoking broader inflation.

The U.S. president has argued that his stated goal of keeping Iran from gaining nuclear weapons justifies higher fuel costs in the near ‌term, but ⁠the economic pain has put political pressure on him to find a way to end the conflict, read the report.

Oil prices were down more than 4% in early trading on Monday.

Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi held phone calls with his Saudi counterpart Prince Faisal bin Farhan and Pakistan’s army chief Asim Munir to discuss diplomatic efforts, Iran’s state media reported on Sunday.

The official Iranian news agency IRNA reported earlier that negotiations between Tehran and Oman over the Strait of Hormuz were in their final stages, ​citing Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi.

Iranian Foreign ​Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei said negotiations ⁠were focused on agreeing a new route through the strait, adding that it had “no link to the Strait of Hormuz being opened or closed. That is a separate discussion.”

Last month Iran publicly rejected an Omani proposal, backed by Gulf states, to manage ​the strait they share. People familiar with the matter had told Reuters the plan included the collection of voluntary fees ​for using the strait.

Eli ⁠Cohen, Israel’s energy minister and a member of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s security cabinet, said there was close security and intelligence coordination between Israel and the U.S. on everything happening in the region.

But he added: “With or without an agreement, and regardless of any external commitments, if Iran attempts to renew its nuclear program or advance its ballistic missile ⁠industries, we ​will be there. We will take action, and we will strike.”

Trump and Netanyahu met on Tuesday ​in Washington, with an Israeli official saying they had explored all possible paths to curb Iran’s nuclear program, including diplomacy, economic pressure and force. Tehran denies it is seeking a nuclear weapon.