More than six weeks after Iran disrupted shipping through the Strait of Hormuz and the United States moved to enforce a naval blockade, the confrontation increasingly appears to be entering a new phase: negotiations driven by exhaustion.

The release of frozen Iranian assets has emerged as the main sticking point in talks between Iran and the United States, with officials in Tehran insisting that guaranteed access to funds must come before any preliminary agreement can move forward.

US President Trump’s approach toward Iran may better be explained by the political timing of the World Cup and the culture of New York real estate dealmaking: performance, delay, leverage and spectacle.

Talk of a possible agreement between Tehran and Washington has intensified political attacks on parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, a central figure in Iran’s diplomatic push and a politician widely seen as backing a more pragmatic approach to negotiations.

A senior Iranian cleric said women without proper hijab should not be excluded from wartime gatherings, while Nour News, affiliated with Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, called for reason and moderation over ideological confrontation.

A small port on Oman’s Musandam Peninsula has become part of Iran’s workaround to the maritime blockade in the Strait of Hormuz, traders say, as goods once routed through the UAE are shifted through costlier channels.