Two Chinese tankers loaded with oil left the Strait of Hormuz on Wednesday, maritime traffic data showed, fueling hopes that the US-Israeli conflict with Iran could soon be resolved after positive statements from the US president and his vice president, Reuters reports.
United States President Donald Trump said on Tuesday that the war would be over "very quickly," while Vice President J.D. Vance highlighted progress in talks with Tehran on an agreement to end hostilities.
"We're in a pretty good position here," Vance said at a White House briefing.
Trump made the statement a day after saying he had paused a planned resumption of hostilities following Tehran's new proposal to end the conflict.
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"I was an hour away from making the decision to go today," Trump told reporters at the White House on Tuesday.
He said Iranian leaders were begging for a deal, adding that another US attack would come in the coming days if an agreement was not reached.
The United States is struggling to end the war it, along with Israel, started nearly three months ago. Trump has repeatedly said during the conflict that a deal with Tehran is close, and has similarly threatened strong strikes on Iran if it fails to reach an agreement, according to Reuters.
The US president is under intense political pressure at home to reach a deal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, a key route for global oil and other goods. Gas prices remain high and Trump's approval ratings have plummeted ahead of November's congressional elections.
The conflict caused the biggest disruption to global energy supplies ever, blocking hundreds of tankers from leaving the Gulf, while energy and maritime facilities across the region were damaged.
Two Chinese ships, among several supertankers carrying Iraqi crude oil and leaving the Gulf this month, passed through the narrow strait carrying about four million barrels of crude, according to data from LSEG and Kpler.
Oil prices fell after positive signals from the White House and the Gulf, with Brent crude LCOc1 falling to a low of $110,16 a barrel, before recovering most of its losses.
"Investors want to gauge whether Washington and Tehran can really find common ground and reach a peace agreement, as the US stance changes day by day," said Toshitaka Tazawa, an analyst at Fujitomi Securities.
Difficulties in negotiations
Speaking to reporters at a White House briefing, Vance acknowledged the difficulties of negotiating with the divided Iranian leadership.
"Sometimes it's not entirely clear what the team's negotiating position is," he said, adding that the US is therefore trying to make it clear where its red lines are.
He also said that one of the goals of Trump's policy is to prevent the spread of a nuclear arms race in the region.
Ebrahim Azizi, head of the Iranian parliament's national security committee, wrote on X that Trump's pause in the attack was due to the realization that any move against Iran would mean "facing a decisive military response."
Iranian state media said Tehran's latest peace proposal includes an end to hostilities on all fronts, including Lebanon, the withdrawal of US forces from areas near Iran and reparations for the destruction caused by US-Israeli attacks.
Tehran also demanded the lifting of sanctions, the release of frozen assets and an end to the US naval blockade, Deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Garibabadi said, as reported by the IRNA news agency.
The terms described in the Iranian reports appeared little changed from Iran's previous offer, which Trump dismissed as "garbage" last week.
The ceasefire mostly holds.
The US-Israeli bombing campaign killed thousands of people in Iran before it was halted by a ceasefire in early April. Israel killed thousands more and displaced hundreds of thousands from their homes in Lebanon, which it invaded in pursuit of the pro-Iranian militia Hezbollah.
Iranian strikes on Israel and neighboring Gulf states have killed dozens of people.
The ceasefire with Iran has largely held, although in recent days drones have been launched from Iraq towards Gulf countries, including Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, apparently by Iran and its allies.
Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said they launched the war to curb Iran's support for regional militias, dismantle its nuclear program, destroy its missile capabilities and create the conditions for the Iranians to overthrow their government.
But the war has not yet deprived Iran of its stockpile of enriched uranium close to the level needed for weapons, nor of its ability to threaten its neighbors with missiles, drones, and proxy militias.
The clerical leadership of the Islamic Republic, which faced a mass uprising earlier this year, withstood the superpower's onslaught without signs of organized opposition.
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