Hormuz Shipping Corridor

Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Dan Caine has privately urged senior Trump administration officials to seek an exit from the Iran war, arguing that further military escalation risks proving counterproductive after more than five months of fighting.

Caine raised the drawbacks of available military options in discussions with Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and CIA Director John Ratcliffe, warning that US ammunition stockpiles have been heavily depleted. He and other officials have expressed caution toward plans drafted in late July for intensified strikes. Many inside and outside the government believe defeating Iran would require a major ground operation.

The push for an off-ramp follows requests for creative strike ideas that underscored the limits of the air campaign. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has said operations have cost an estimated $37.5 billion and asked Congress for $67 billion to replenish weapons, while a new Reuters/Ipsos poll shows just 28 percent of Americans approve of Trump's handling of the conflict.

President Donald Trump agreed on August 2 to call off planned strikes on Iran, reversing a threat he issued just days earlier, after Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar urged restraint and Tehran warned it would retaliate against Gulf infrastructure.

The cancellation followed an intense diplomatic campaign. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi contacted counterparts in Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Qatar as well as Pakistan's army chief, urging US allies to intervene. Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman pressed Trump to forgo military action and return to negotiations. Tehran had warned mediators it would strike power plants and desalination facilities, with a Gulf official saying Iran threatened to "plunge the Gulf into darkness, country after country".

Separately, Iran said an agreement with Oman on the Strait of Hormuz is in its final stages, with a joint statement expected unless unspecified parties obstruct the process.

Iran's parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf accused Donald Trump of conducting "theatre diplomacy on loop" in a social media post on Thursday, dismissing U.S. claims of progress toward ending the months-long conflict between Washington, Israel and Tehran.

The criticism followed Trump's statement Thursday that he believed the war on Iran was close to an end and his assertion that the Strait of Hormuz would reopen "very soon". Iran has been holding talks with Oman on restoring commercial shipping through the strait, with Tehran claiming a deal is "on the verge of being finalised", though Iranian officials caution reopening will not be automatic. Trump on Saturday cancelled a planned large-scale military attack on Iran, citing requests from mediating countries and Tehran itself.

The United States and Israel launched strikes on Iran on February 28, triggering a regional war. The two sides signed a ceasefire memorandum on June 17, though hostilities continued and Iran reimposed restrictions on the strait, a conduit for 20% of global oil trade before the conflict.

Iran and Oman are close to finalizing a temporary, toll-free shipping agreement for the Strait of Hormuz, a pact endorsed by Gulf Cooperation Council members that would cover inbound traffic via Iranian waters and outbound routes nearer Oman.

The United Nations' International Maritime Organization and the U.S. will participate in the announcement, though Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Gharibabadi insisted no direct negotiations with Washington have taken place. U.S. President Donald Trump, who cancelled planned strikes on Iran on Sunday to preserve diplomacy, said Thursday he believes the conflict will end "rather soon" and that the strait could reopen shortly. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent suggested a deal could materialize by Wednesday.

Separately, leaders of Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, and Turkey are meeting Friday in Jeddah to sign a mutual defense pact, as Riyadh warned of coordinated militia attacks on its infrastructure.

Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Turkey will sign a mutual defence agreement during a trilateral summit in Jeddah on Friday, uniting three major Sunni powers amid heightened regional tensions.

Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif will convene in the Saudi port city for talks focused on security cooperation. Sharif arrived in Jeddah on Thursday evening for a three-day visit accompanied by a high-level delegation including army chief and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar, and is scheduled to hold bilateral talks with the crown prince.

The pact builds on a Saudi-Pakistan defence agreement announced in September 2025 and follows Riyadh's announcement in late July of a 14-nation defensive maritime coalition, including Turkey and Pakistan, to secure Red Sea shipping. Pakistan has mediated for months to end the U.S.-Israel war on Iran launched on 28 February.

A tanker transiting the Strait of Hormuz reported hearing two explosions roughly 16 kilometres southeast of Kumzar, Oman, the UK Maritime Trade Operations centre confirmed, updating an earlier incident in the same waterway. The vessel's captain told UKMTO that the blasts were heard as the ship moved through the strait near the Omani coast.

UKMTO confirmed that the crew and the tanker are safe, and no environmental damage has been reported. The cause of the explosions remains unclear.

The report follows an earlier blast near the strait on Monday. Iran has exercised de facto control over the strait since the Middle East war began on 28 February and has previously opened fire on vessels it accused of deviating from authorised routes. Separately, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei said on Wednesday that Iran and Oman had agreed on geographic coordinates for a new shipping route through the strait.

Iranian President Massoud Pezeshkian said on Wednesday that communication with Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei is currently "very difficult", a rare official acknowledgement of the challenges surrounding the leader's prolonged absence from public life.

Mojtaba Khamenei, 56, has not appeared in public since assuming the role following the death of his father, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was killed on the first day of the US-Israeli military campaign against Iran on 28 February. The new supreme leader was gravely wounded in those strikes, suffering severe burns to his face and requiring extensive surgery. His absence from his father's funeral in July fuelled speculation about his condition.

Pezeshkian, speaking in an interview on state television, defended the ayatollah, saying their meetings had been productive and marked by rationality. He lamented that the current situation allows ill-intentioned individuals to present a distorted image of the supreme leader.