Iran continues to try and play hardball but I can imagine this agreement still going through even if there will be a few hiccups along the way. Initial reports suggested Wednesday as the target date to announce the “reopening”, allowing for nuclear/uranium talks to take place after.

But based on the latest headline above, perhaps there might be a bit of a delay.

As a recap, the arrangement with Oman will allow for Iran to officially have greater control over traffic along the Strait of Hormuz as compared to before the conflict started. More specifically, any inbound traffic would use a northern lane in Iranian waters. Meanwhile, outbound traffic would use a southern lane in Omani waters coordinated with Iran.

The proposed arrangement will have a test period of sorts for 60 days, under which there will be no tolls applied. And in the next 30 days, Iran will also clear mines from the median lane to work towards a more permanent deal. Or at least this is all what is being promised.

As a reminder, the previous ceasefire deal and memorandum of understanding was supposed to last for 60 days but fell apart after less than three weeks.

It goes without saying that the latest arrangement here could meet the same fate and that any optimism will remain fragile at best. Adding to that, it remains to be seen what exactly will this “reopening” entail. Iran has already made it clear that ship traffic will not return to pre-war levels whatsoever.

The hope is that with the use of oil pipelines to bypass the strait and shadow fleets still quietly bringing oil barrels out, any further “reopening” will help ease the pressure on the oil market. However, to expect conditions to return to what they were before the conflict started is still very much a pipedream at this point.

This article was written by Justin Low at investinglive.com.