00:00Sources say the U.S. and Iran are looking to arrange that second round of talks in the coming days.
00:04They say the plan is to hold more discussions before the current ceasefire expires next week.
00:09For more on this, let's bring our Washington and White House correspondent, Jeff Mason.
00:12Our oil and shipping reporter, Willen Soon, joins us as well.
00:15Jeff, let me start off with you.
00:17What developments there on the ground are giving rise to this kind of cautious optimism
00:21or at least the expectation that the worst case scenario may not play out?
00:27Well, I think the developments are simply that the U.S. and Iran are open to talking again
00:31and that they are making efforts to put in or put together another round of talks.
00:36President Trump said in an interview that those talks could take place in Islamabad again,
00:41where they took place last weekend.
00:43Those last round of talks in Islamabad did not end with a peace agreement,
00:48but the fact that they are looking at getting together again is creating optimism,
00:53certainly in the markets and among others who are hoping to see an end to this war,
00:58that they can come up with a deal.
01:01On those potential talks, to what extent does that need to come with Iran
01:08essentially stopping that shipping through the strait in order not to derail the prospects of these talks?
01:16Well, there are multiple issues that would be discussed at the talks
01:19and multiple issues that are hanging over them.
01:21Certainly the strait is one of them, and you're right to bring it up.
01:24The president said after the talks concluded or failed over the weekend
01:29that the U.S. would start a blockade of the strait.
01:32That's something that he's committed to,
01:34and it's another one of the things that he has wielded as his own sort of threats to Iran,
01:40along with that two-week pause, the threat coming after that two-week pause, I should say,
01:46of restarting attacks against the country.
01:48So, you know, that's got to be at the top of mind amongst Iranians, just as it is here.
01:54The other main thing that the president has said repeatedly over and over again
01:59is that talks need to lead to the Iranians agreeing not to pursue a nuclear weapon,
02:05and that's just not something that so far they've agreed or been willing to agree to.
02:10Well, and at this point, this full naval blockage of Iranian vessels,
02:15are we seeing the impact of that?
02:16Do we have any further intel in terms of how this is playing out?
02:23So, I think what we saw overnight is that the U.S. Central Command has said
02:28that six merchant ships have agreed or rather responded to the blockade
02:32and turned around and going back to the Iranian port.
02:36And I think at the same time, as we mentioned just now,
02:38Iran is planning to not send ships through Hormuz.
02:42So, while the U.S. blockade did throw a level of uncertainty into the whole situation,
02:48but it appears to be more stable than we feared that it might be.
02:55So, the potential escalation appears to be drawing a line over there
03:00with the turnaround of the ships.
03:02And so far, I think through the Strait of Hormuz, traffic is still low,
03:05but the situation doesn't appear to be escalating on either side.
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