(Bloomberg) — Iran suggested negotiations to get more ships moving through the Strait of Hormuz are making progress, after President Donald Trump called off what he said was a major attack on the Islamic Republic.

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Oil fell on Monday, with Brent crude down about 4.5% to just over $83 a barrel, after Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, said discussions between Tehran and Oman over management of the strait are in the final stages.

Trump said Sunday that a deal to open the waterway may be close and that new unspecified talks with Iran would begin on Monday.

Still, there’s little clarity on the Iran-Oman negotiations and no sign the Islamic Republic is willing to allow vessels free passage through the waterway, which Trump has demanded. Instead, Iran said it’s talking to Oman about a new route and not about whether the strait as a whole will be open or closed.

The discussions with Oman are about a “temporary” route to ensure the safety of ships, Esmail Baghaei, an Iranian foreign ministry spokesman, said on Monday. “We are not currently negotiating with the United States.”

Last week, Bloomberg reported that Muscat and Tehran were discussing reopening the so-called middle passage through Hormuz. It has, however, been mined by Iran, according to people familiar with the matter, and could have to be cleared before vessels use it on a regular basis.

The chokepoint, a vital conduit for supplies of oil, liquefied natural gas and other commodities such as fertilizers, remains all but shut. Hardly any ships are sailing through, at least with their transponders turned on. Most that do are going on a northern route close to Iran’s shores with Iranian permission, or on a southern one nearby Omani territory.

Trump, early on Sunday Iran time, said he had canceled strikes — the likes of which he claimed have “not seen since World War II” — after lobbying from Iran and Middle Eastern countries. He later said Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar had all urged him to give diplomacy more time.

Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman held a call with Trump over the weekend. The kingdom’s de facto leader “stressed the need to prioritize dialogue to reduce escalation and the importance of making every possible effort to achieve calm,” according to the main Saudi news agency.

Gulf Arab states are allies of the US but have become exasperated by the continuation of the war, now in its sixth month. They are concerned that any escalation would see Iran lash out by firing more drones and missiles at them, damaging their infrastructure and hurting their economies.

Iran has regularly attacked the likes of Kuwait and Bahrain in the past two months, during skirmishes with the US. Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Qatar have suffered less, but have seen their ships hit near Hormuz. Saudi Arabia has also been attacked by Iran-backed militias in Iraq and by the Houthis, based in Yemen, in the past two weeks.

Trump signaled he wouldn’t wait long for a diplomatic resolution and urged mediators and Iran to “rapidly make a deal.” It must include, he said, the “immediate, complete, and total opening” of the strait, as well as “an end to Iran’s nuclear threat.”

The US, he said, remains “locked and loaded.” He suggested the weekend strikes would have been carried out with Israel, which isn’t known to have struck Iran since a first ceasefire deal in April.

While implying the attacks would have been the biggest since the Iran war erupted in late February, Trump said he is “not looking to kill people.” US embassies across the region on Saturday had warned Americans to be prepared for flight cancellations and airspace closures.

The president previously said he would step up the intensity of bombing until Iran reopened the strait. He threatened to eventually hit the country’s civilian infrastructure and power plants, something Tehran has warned it would retaliate against fiercely.

Israel, which launched the war alongside the US but wasn’t party to an initial Washington-Iran peace deal in June, is waiting out the latest diplomatic push, according to a member of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s security cabinet, Zev Elkin.

There’s “some kind of vector toward an agreement between Iran and Oman,” he told local Army Radio on Sunday.

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