By Sunday morning, the latest Bloomberg ship tracking data showed that tanker traffic through the Strait of Hormuz had largely ground to a halt. There were multiple incidents of tankers U-turning over the last 24 hours. At the same time, a senior Iranian official renewed threats to close the Bab al-Mandeb Strait.
The Hormuz chokepoint (closed once again after briefly opening on Friday morning) comes as the US blockade of Iranian ports remains in place and US-Iran diplomatic channels appear active.
President Trump told Fox News that special envoy Steve Witkoff is traveling to Pakistan for talks with Iranian negotiators, suggesting the Trump team and US Secretary of State Marco Rubio are still pursuing a negotiated off-ramp.
Separately, Trump wrote on Truth Social that his representatives "will be there tomorrow evening, for Negotiations."
Trump also renewed threats made earlier this month to "knock out every single Power Plant, and every single Bridge, in Iran" if no deal is reached, warning that "they'll come down fast, they'll come down easy."
Confirmation of another round of upcoming US-Iran talks comes one day after Iran shuttered the Hormuz, citing the US Naval blockade that remains in place.
The odds of shipping traffic returning to normal on the Hormuz by the end of the month are currently around 28% on Polymarket. Those odds just hours ago, early Sunday, stood around 18%.
Overnight, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, speaker of the Iranian parliament, admitted on national television that there had been "progress" with Washington, but that there were many gaps and some fundamental points remained.
"We are still far from the final discussion," said Ghalibaf, one of Tehran's top negotiators.
Ghalibaf continued, "If America does not lift the blockade, traffic in the Strait of Hormuz will definitely be limited."
Source: ZeroHedge News
