Tehran is negotiating a shipping corridor through the Strait of Hormuz with Oman as Trump holds off on further strikes — a tactical win the administration says is just step one toward its real target: a nuclear-free Iran.

Trump’s Pressure Campaign Moves Iran Toward Hormuz Deal Amid Ongoing War

Five months into the war that began when Iran drew fire from the U.S. and Israel, President Trump’s “peace through strength” doctrine is facing its first real test on the diplomatic front — and by the administration’s own account, it’s working, even if the finish line isn’t in sight yet.

Iran and Oman say they’re in the final stages of an agreement to establish a safe shipping corridor through the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow waterway through which roughly a fifth of the world’s oil supply passes. Trump himself has been talking up a breakthrough for days, telling reporters this week that “a lot of progress has been made” and that a deal “could happen” within days. He’s paired that optimism with a warning that’s become his signature on this conflict: reopen the strait, or Iran gets “hit really hard.”

It’s the kind of blunt, no-nonsense posture that’s defined Trump’s approach to Tehran since the war began — and it’s clearly moving markets. Oil prices dropped sharply and stocks climbed toward record highs this week purely on the anticipation of a deal, a reaction that says as much about how seriously traders are taking American resolve as anything coming out of Tehran.

Progress, With an Asterisk

Here’s where the picture gets more complicated than a victory lap — and where the administration’s actual strategy is worth understanding rather than oversimplifying. Iranian officials, including Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, insist they aren’t negotiating with Washington at all, only with Muscat, over technical shipping routes. Tehran has been explicit that it has no intention of letting the strait return to its pre-war status, where no single country controlled passage — Iranian officials are pushing for a framework that gives them real say over the routes ships use to move through the waterway.