US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Tuesday said progress had been made on a deal with Iran to fully reopen the Strait of Hormuz, though there still was some work to go, after President Donald Trump and other senior administration officials suggested a deal could be reached in the coming days.

“There’s been progress made in those talks, but not finality yet. We’re hoping that will happen very shortly,” Rubio told reporters at the State Department.

Trump claimed on Saturday that a deal was imminent when he decided to pull back from his latest threat to bomb Iran. Then on Monday, he claimed that a deal could be signed on Tuesday, when his Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent declared the agreement could be sealed on Wednesday.

Rubio reiterated that the agreement under discussion only deals with Hormuz and that an additional deal will need to be signed pertaining to Iran’s nuclear program.

He also said the United States was involved in negotiations between Oman and Iran on increasing traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, as the latter two reported making progress toward a deal.

Under the emerging agreement, ships would enter the Persian Gulf through an Iranian-controlled route and exit through a route controlled by Oman, with service fees charged for providing security and preserving the maritime environment, two regional officials told The Associated Press.

They said negotiations were still underway and that the final agreement could take a different form, with any deal linked to lifting the US blockade on Iran’s ports. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive negotiations unfolding behind closed doors.

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© The Times of Israel