Iran war updates: Tehran says Oman talks on Hormuz advancing ‘positively’

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We are about to close this page. Before we go, here’s a recap of the day’s main developments:

• US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said a deal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz could be reached “today or tomorrow”, while Secretary of State Marco Rubio said progress had been made but no final agreement was in place.
• Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman, Esmaeil Baghaei, said talks with Oman on safe entry and exit lanes in the strait were proceeding positively.
• Oil prices fell sharply on hopes of a deal, with Brent crude falling below $80 a barrel.
• US Central Command said the southern Strait of Hormuz route remained open and that more than 1,000 vessels had crossed the waterway with US assistance.
• Israel and Lebanon began a seventh round of US-backed talks in Rome, focused on Hezbollah’s disarmament and a gradual Israeli withdrawal.
• Israeli forces kill two Palestinians in Gaza as Netanyahu says Israel will not withdraw from their current positions in the Strip until Hamas is fully disarmed.
• An Indian vessel sank after being struck near Yemen, but all 14 crew members were rescued.

Israeli forces are establishing new bases deep inside southern Lebanon, potentially for a long-term presence in the occupied territory, Haaretz reports, citing satellite images and field visits.

Israeli forces control about 602sq km (232sq miles) of Lebanese territory, extending up to 12km (7 miles) from the border in some areas, Haaretz said. The military has built at least seven new bases and 32km (20 miles) of logistical roads.

A senior Israeli officer cited by the outlet said troops had been told to prepare for a stay of up to a year. New bases have been established in areas including Khiam and Maroun al-Ras, where most buildings have been destroyed.

The expansion comes despite a US-brokered agreement providing for a gradual Israeli withdrawal as the Lebanese army reasserts control and Hezbollah is disarmed.

An oil spill from the grounded tanker Caroline Bezengi off Oman has expanded to about 150sq km (57.9sq miles), according to Greenpeace Germany and satellite images reviewed by AP.

Oil has reached parts of Qabliyah Island, which lies within a protected marine area home to endangered seabirds and the Arabian Sea humpback whale.

The tanker, estimated to have carried more than 800,000 barrels of crude, has been stranded since June. It is sanctioned by the UK, EU, Canada and Switzerland over alleged links to Russian oil exports.

Environmental experts warned that the vessel may be sinking deeper, with no visible signs of a major response operation.

According to what we hear from diplomatic sources here in Tehran, there are positive indications coming from Iran. But we have to keep in mind that we are dealing with a fragile and brittle situation.

We have heard different parties saying that we are on the verge of reaching a deal, but at some point, there was another round of confrontation.

What we hear from Tehran, from the spokesperson for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and from the foreign minister himself, is indicative of positive progress.

The spokesperson for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs spoke to state TV and said the same. He said talks are under way and that they are trying to determine a safe trajectory and entry and exit lanes for ships and vessels to reopen the strait.

He also said these trajectories should fulfil the sovereign rights and security concerns of the Iranian and Omani sides, and that the process of diplomatic engagement, both technically and politically, is currently assessed positively.

But still, we know that there are reservations. Diplomatic sources are also talking about disruptive actors. At the same time, there are again some positive indications, with talk of the possibility of a deal being reached by the end of Wednesday.

Lara Abu Sharia could not sleep on Monday night.

Every time she closed her eyes, she says, the faces of her loved ones appeared before her. So the 39-year-old turned to her phone, scrolling through photos as she prepared herself for a long-awaited farewell to her family.

In the largest mass funeral held in Gaza since Israel’s genocidal war against Palestinians began in 2023, thousands gathered in Gaza City’s Sabra neighbourhood on Tuesday to bid farewell to 112 members of the Abu Sharia and al-Hasayna families, whose remains were recently unearthed from beneath the rubble nearly three years after an Israeli air attack.

When the white bags containing the recovered remains arrived at the funeral site, Lara stood crying, surrounded by other mourning relatives.

“Today felt like the first day I lost them,” she says. “It was a renewed grief, saying goodbye to them this way.”

Read more here.

We heard earlier from Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin, who indicated that a deal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz could be reached as early as Tuesday.

So far, there has been no announcement. But there is an overall sense that progress is being made in the talks, at least to clarify how ships can move in and out of the strait, how much control Iran or Oman could have, whether there could be any tolls, and whether other countries could help de-mine parts of the waterway to facilitate commercial transit.

The posture is essentially that no news is good news, given that several officials indicated earlier on Tuesday that talks were continuing and that they liked what they were seeing from the discussions.

The Trump administration does not want Iran to charge transit tolls, arguing that the strait is an international waterway open to all vessels, regardless of where they are flagged or registered.

Iran argues that it has the right to impose some form of fee. Reports suggest financial support could instead be provided for environmental remediation, shipping-lane maintenance or de-mining a central passageway.

But Washington does not want Iran directly charging commercial vessels to transit the strait.

A Board of Peace official has told our colleagues at Al Jazeera Arabic that efforts are now focused on implementing the Gaza roadmap and advancing Trump’s broader ceasefire plan.

“Trump’s plan offers Palestinians a better future without Hamas rule and provides security for Israelis,” the official said.

The official added that a week ago, few expected Hamas to accept handing power to a technocratic government and giving up its weapons.

“We must now implement the roadmap. A long and difficult process lies ahead,” the official said.

Iran’s military authorities say they are prepared to resume war with the United States if negotiations again fall through, emphasising that they have adapted and recovered.

Washington has signalled that an agreement over the Strait of Hormuz may be imminent, and US President Donald Trump renewed his demand for a deal, or “total surrender” this week.

But the Islamic Republic has said while talks are ongoing with Oman and other mediators to end the US-Israel war on Iran, work on boosting military strength has only intensified.

“We have made maximum use of the opportunity of the memorandum of understanding and every moment of the ceasefire,” army spokesman Mohammad Akraminia told state television this week, referring to a now-suspended MoU signed with the US in June.

Read more here.

Palestinian shop owners in Aaba village in the occupied West Bank are dismantling cafes, shops and other businesses after receiving demolition orders from Israeli authorities.

Residents say settlement outposts have rapidly expanded towards the commercial hub in recent months.

Watch our report below:

US Central Command says the southern passage through the Strait of Hormuz remains open to commercial shipping and that its forces have helped more than 1,000 vessels transit the waterway over the past three months.

Here are the latest developments:

• The US State Department has announced that the latest round of Israel-Lebanon negotiations that began in the Italian capital Rome today will continue through August 6.
• Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says Israeli troops “are not withdrawing from the current lines in Gaza until Hamas is completely disarmed”, according to a video posted on Facebook and cited by the Times of Israel newspaper.
• Israeli forces have carried out several new raids in the occupied West Bank, firing tear gas and stun grenades after storming the towns of Beit Fajjar and al-Lubban Asharqiya, according to the Palestinian Wafa news agency.
• US Central Command says US forces have redirected a total of 45 commercial vessels as part of their “blockade against Iran” since reimposing the measure in mid-July.

As Israel gears up to hold elections in October, a dramatic surge in settlement activity has heightened concerns that the settler movement is stepping up efforts to cement its grip on the occupied West Bank, in stark defiance of international law.

The uptick follows a parliamentary term during which Israel moved to entrench control over the West Bank deeper within the machinery of the state, shifting authority from military administration to civilian institutions, accelerating settlement planning and expanding infrastructure.

However, the Religious Zionist Party of Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich – the man widely credited for pushing the settler project to the forefront of Israeli political debate – is suggested by numerous opinion polls to be far from certain to even meet the electoral threshold for the post-election Knesset.

This has prompted what analysts describe as a desperate scramble to promote the settlement mission while consolidating the support of the settler minority that Smotrich grew up within.

Read more here.

US Central Command says US forces redirected a total of 45 commercial vessels as part of their “blockade against Iran” since reimposing the measure in mid-July.

That is one more vessel than the total of 44 announced by CENTCOM yesterday.

CENTCOM has repeatedly claimed the Strait of Hormuz is open for commercial transit, as US officials say they are working on a deal with Iran to get more ships through the waterway safely.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says Israeli troops “are not withdrawing from the current lines in Gaza until Hamas is completely disarmed”, according to a video posted on Facebook and cited by the Times of Israel newspaper.

Netanyahu was quoted as saying that “Trump thinks, and his team thinks, that Hamas can be totally disarmed and Gaza demilitarised – we’re looking into it”.

“They sent us a draft, we didn’t agree. It wasn’t our draft. We sent our responses,” he said, adding that those responses had been sent before the issue was taken up by the media, according to the Times of Israel.

Israeli forces have carried out several new raids in the occupied West Bank, storming the towns of Beit Fajjar and al-Lubban Asharqiya, according to the Wafa news agency.

Israeli forces fired tear gas and stun grenades in both towns, while also raiding and damaging a commercial kiosk in Beit Fajjar, said the agency.

Earlier, Israeli forces vandalised several Palestinian monuments in Tulkarem and a nearby town, in what the local governor called “a blatant attack on public property”, reported Wafa.