The United States was hopeful that a deal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz would be done "today or tomorrow", a top US official said on Tuesday, hours after yet another cargo ship was hit in the vital waterway.
US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told broadcaster CNBC "there is a chance we may have a deal" in the coming hours, a day after President Donald Trump said the strait might reopen on Tuesday.
Speaking from the White House on Monday, the US leader continued his now familiar combination of bullish optimism about diplomacy and bellicose threats, warning that this was Iran's "last chance before decapitation".
Meanwhile, a projectile has hit an Indian vessel, causing it to capsize and sink near Yemeni waters, but all 14 seafarers have been safely rescued by Yemen's coast guard, the South Asian nation's shipping minister said on Tuesday in a post on X.
Tehran and Washington have been at war since February 28, when the US and Israel launched surprise attacks on Iran. Despite a ceasefire and a preliminary deal in the months since, diplomacy has failed to end the conflict.
The Strait of Hormuz, a key conduit for global oil and gas supplies, has been the spark for repeated returns to fighting.
In what has become a regular pattern, Trump last week threatened to hit Iran "very hard", potentially with attacks against civilian infrastructure, only to pull back on Saturday, saying the "perimeters" of a deal were in place.
On Monday, he said he had agreed to continue to pursue talks with Iran at the request of some countries.
But Iran's foreign ministry denied that negotiations with Washington were taking place, even as Trump insisted they were. "We are talking right now," the US president said.
Qatar, which has been mediating negotiations, said on Tuesday that diplomatic efforts were ongoing but that there were no direct Iran-US talks planned.
The diplomatic focus is on reopening Hormuz, which Trump said could come "literally by tomorrow", and the denuclearisation of Iran, which he said could "take a little while".
"Whether Iran wants to admit it or not, we are, in fact, talking of a solution to a problem that they have caused, for decades," he added.
Trump pointed to the United States' counter-blockade of Iranian ports, saying: "Nothing gets through to Iran, unless we want it to, and nothing will get through, unless a Deal, or Total Surrender, is accomplished." SEE ALSO P6
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