Washington, Aug 4 (dpa/GNA) – Shipping traffic through the Middle East’s key maritime chokepoints remained under pressure on Tuesday, even as US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Washington and Tehran could reach an agreement to reopen the Strait of Hormuz as early as this week.
“We are in talks with the Iranians, and I think there is a chance we may have a deal today or tomorrow to open the strait and move towards a more normalized position in this conflict,” Bessent told CNBC. Asked whether Iran could impose tolls on vessels using the strategic waterway, Bessent said he expected ships would be able to pass freely.
Only nine ships transited the Strait of Hormuz on Monday, according to data from maritime analytics provider Kpler made available to dpa. An average of around 16 vessels passed through the waterway each day last week.
Overnight into Tuesday, a ship came under fire off the coast of Oman, underscoring the fragile security situation in the region. Qatar, which is mediating between Washington and Tehran alongside Pakistan, said diplomatic efforts were continuing but that no agreement had yet been reached.
Qatari Foreign Ministry spokesman Majed al-Ansari said negotiations had reached a “very advanced stage,” with mediators continuing to exchange draft proposals in an effort to bridge differences between the two sides.
He said no agreement had yet been reached on reopening the Strait of Hormuz, although that could change “in the coming hours or days.” Preventing further escalation and reopening the strategic waterway remained the immediate priorities, he added.
An agreement between the United States and Iran could quickly boost shipping through Hormuz, although a sustained recovery would likely take longer, said Dimitris Ampatzidis, a risk analyst at Kpler.
Shipping through the Bab al-Mandab Strait at the southern end of the Red Sea also remained depressed as attacks and threats by Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthi movement continued to disrupt maritime traffic.
Kpler recorded just 25 vessel transits through Bab al-Mandab on Monday, down from 42 on Friday.
GNA