President Donald Trump told reporters on Sunday, August 2, 2026, that an agreement with Iran was imminent and new talks would begin on Monday, August 3, after he called off what he described as a planned assault of extraordinary scale. Trump said the US attack he had cancelled "would have been the biggest attack since World War II" but that he had decided against it in favor of a diplomatic track Al Jazeera.

The deal, according to Trump, is "imminent, having to do with the Hormuz Strait and ultimately the denuclearisation of Iran." He said Iran had agreed to an "immediate, complete, and total opening" of the Strait of Hormuz and that the US would hold off on a fresh attack as long as a deal could be reached quickly to halt Iran's nuclear ambitions Al Jazeera Fox News. Trump declined to specify where the talks would take place or who would participate, and he did not answer when reporters asked whether there was a deadline for an agreement Al Jazeera.

Iranian officials offered a notably different framing of the format. Esmaeil Baghaei, spokesman for the Iranian Foreign Ministry, said on Monday: "We are not going to host a delegation or be guests of a country during these days" Al Jazeera. Al Jazeera's Osama Bin Javaid, reporting from Doha, said an unnamed source hinted mediators were ready to fly to Tehran, where an indirect negotiation session would be held. Bin Javaid reported that the Pakistani interior minister and the Qataris were expected to send emissaries, and that the talks would likely first focus on the ongoing bilateral discussions between Iran and Oman over control of the Strait of Hormuz Al Jazeera.

From Tehran, Al Jazeera's Tohid Asadi reported that Iran was talking to the Omanis bilaterally, focusing on reopening the Strait of Hormuz and denying any potential foreign intervention. Alan Eyre, a diplomatic fellow at the Middle East Institute, told Al Jazeera that the only consequential talks at this stage were the Iran-Oman channel on Hormuz, and that Iran had concluded it was not worth talking directly to the US because it "can't count on anything the US says" Al Jazeera.

The immediate market reaction was sharp: oil prices tumbled and government bonds gained on hopes for a deal YouTube/Al Jazeera. The Strait of Hormuz is a critical artery for global energy supplies, and any arrangement affecting its status carries outsized implications for crude markets and shipping insurance rates.

This is not the first time Washington has declared a breakthrough with Tehran in 2026. The two sides have cycled through multiple rounds of negotiation, each followed by renewed tensions. In February, the White House published a fact sheet noting Trump had deployed a "massive armada" to the region and urged Iran to come to the table. In June, Trump signed an Iran Memorandum of Understanding at Versailles, and the White House released a statement titled "President Trump's Iran Agreement Is America First in Action," claiming the agreement ensured Iran would never obtain a nuclear weapon and reopened Hormuz. That same month, Reuters reported that Iran would control the Strait of Hormuz together with Oman as both sides signaled a peace deal was near and Tehran claimed victory. By July, US and Iranian technical talks had concluded in Doha focused on Hormuz, with Trump saying the sides were making progress on nuclear limits White House White House Reuters Reuters.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio's public remarks over the past several months trace an arc of friction. In March, he noted some Iranian officials were floating a Hormuz tolling arrangement. In May, he said Iran had shut down the strait entirely and was refusing passage to any country. In June, he said Iran had denied agreeing to IAEA inspections, contradicting Vice President Vance's account. In July, Rubio said Iran had been expected to release a statement opening Hormuz and pledging to cease attacks, a statement that evidently did not materialize as anticipated State Department State Department State Department State Department.

Trump's July appearance on Fox & Friends, preserved in a White House release, underscored what the administration called Iran's "bad-faith tactics" in negotiations and confirmed US intelligence and readiness to act. The White House framing has consistently paired diplomatic outreach with threats of overwhelming force White House.

Trita Parsi, executive vice president of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, told Al Jazeera that Trump's pattern of escalating and then cancelling attacks on Iran has damaged prospects for a negotiated settlement. Senator John Kennedy, Republican of Louisiana, struck a different note in an NBC interview, saying the US has "lost perspective" on war with Iran and that the absence of a peace deal would be "fine" Al Jazeera NBC News.

The structure now taking shape appears to be one of indirect mediation rather than direct bilateral negotiation. With Oman as the primary interlocutor on Hormuz and Qatar and Pakistan reportedly sending emissaries, the diplomatic architecture resembles the multilateral frameworks used in past Iran negotiations. Whether the current round yields a durable agreement or becomes another waypoint in a cycle of declared breakthroughs and renewed friction will depend heavily on whether the Hormuz question can be resolved independently of the more complex denuclearization track.