Sarah: Trump calls off the strikes and schedules Monday talks — but that same week
Sarah: the Pentagon quietly emails analysts asking for new ways to punish Tehran.
Sarah: Quick catch-up before we dig in: the Strait of Hormuz is this war's shipping chokepoint.
Sarah: Closing it snarled trade, and the fight over who controls that traffic is now part of the broader peace effort.
Sarah: Iran and Oman had already traded proposals for managing the strait.
Sarah: Then a tanker was struck off Oman
Sarah: and Axios reported IRGC missiles targeting commercial ships
Sarah: adding pressure on shippers and negotiators alike.
Rich: This is Iran War Daily — and today, the gap between the talking and the shooting is as wide as it's been.
Rich: Oman says a Hormuz deal is in its final stages; CENTCOM says thirty-five ships redirected.
Sarah: Two tracks in the same week.
Sarah: Let's start with what Trump actually announced.
Sarah: Al-Monitor, with Steve Holland, Menna AlaaElDin and Yasmine Ghania:
Quote: ABOARD AIR FORCE ONE/CAIRO, Aug 3 (Reuters) - U.S.
Quote: President Donald Trump said talks with Iran will happen on Monday but declined to set a deadline for an agreement after earlier saying he
Quote: had called off an imminent attack in hopes of quickly reaching a deal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz and resolve the impasse over Tehran's
Quote: nuclear capabilities.
Sarah: Here's what we know: speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One on Sunday, Trump said talks with Iran begin Monday afternoon.
Sarah: He gave no deadline or location, and he wouldn't say who's in the room.
Sarah: So that answers the question hanging over the end of last week: which way would Trump jump after all those strike threats?
Sarah: Reuters says he called off an imminent attack in hopes of getting a fast deal.
Sarah: For now, he pivoted to the table.
Rich: Sure — and read what he actually promised on Truth Social Saturday.
Rich: Quote, the Immediate, Complete and Total reopening of Hormuz.
Rich: Capital I, capital C, capital T.
Rich: That's a lot of capital letters for a deal with no deadline and no venue.
Rich: And look at what's bundled together here: the strait AND the nuclear file, per Al-Monitor, all in one Monday afternoon.
Rich: That's the whole war stuffed into one sit-down, and he still hasn't told us who shows up for Tehran.
Sarah: Here's the catch: 'no deadline' cuts both ways.
Sarah: It buys room without committing anyone.
Sarah: Trump said he didn't want people to die.
Sarah: We'll take him at his word on that and watch what Monday produces.
Rich: Right, because this is the same president who's issued the escalate-then-extend routine how many times since February.
Rich: I'll believe Monday afternoon when a tanker captain believes it.
Sarah: Al Jazeera writes:
Quote: Foreign Ministry spokesman
Quote: Esmail Baghaei said that Tehran and Muscat were close to reaching a deal on a new maritime route through Hormuz
Quote: separate from existing corridors.
Quote: “We are now going to reach an understanding on a route acceptable to both sides – neither the northern route nor the southern route – but
Quote: one that respects the sovereign rights of both sides and safeguards our national interests and security,” Baghaei said in an interview with
Quote: state television.
Rich: In a cabinet report posted to Telegram, Araghchi says the talks are 'on the way to being finalised.'
Rich: After all those dueling proposals over Hormuz, Iran now says it's in final-stage talks with Oman.
Sarah: And now we have specifics.
Sarah: Baghaei says on state TV that the mechanism is a route acceptable to both sides — neither the northern nor southern corridor
Sarah: but a third line through the strait.
Rich: Right, but read the fine print.
Rich: Baghaei's third route only sets a new lane; it doesn't reopen the strait.
Rich: Araghchi's own ministry says Hormuz never goes back to its pre-war status.
Rich: A tanker captain gets a new lane with a permanent asterisk.
Sarah: And Iran keeps the leverage.
Sarah: Tehran has held effective control of Hormuz since the February 28 strikes
Sarah: and this formula preserves that control under the label of compromise.
Sarah: Muscat, notably, hasn't said a word yet.
Rich: One-fifth of the world's oil moves through there.
Rich: 'Respects the sovereign rights of both sides' is a lovely phrase that tells an insurer exactly nothing about who fires if you're in the
Rich: wrong water.
Sarah: This comes from Jeyhun Aghazada at the Associated Press.
Sarah: The AP lays out the trade-off, citing a regional official: Washington lifts the maritime blockade and lets Iranian oil back onto the water.
Sarah: In return, Tehran signs onto what the proposal calls an end to regional attacks.
Sarah: So the Iraq and Jordan incidents — the PMF strikes we've watched spread outward — now count at the negotiating table as well as on the
Sarah: battlefield.
Rich: Notice who's not in the room.
Rich: Riyadh. You lift the blockade
Rich: Iranian barrels flow again
Rich: and Saudi pricing leverage takes the hit — and there's not a Saudi voice anywhere in this framing.
Rich: And 'end to regional attacks' — is that Lebanon too?
Rich: Because you're quietly asking whether Hormuz navigation is getting swapped for a ceasefire nobody's naming out loud.
Sarah: Katie Bo Lillis, Zachary Cohen, writing in CNN:
Quote: The request from a senior officer at the US military command carrying out President Donald Trump’s war with Iran came in an email: We need
Quote: ideas.
Quote: “We are looking for new creative and unconventional ways to pressure and punish Iran,” an officer in US Central Command’s intelligence
Quote: branch wrote in a message sent Wednesday to a broad group of military analysts
Quote: according to a source familiar with the message.
Rich: So in the same week Trump calls off strikes and books Monday talks
Rich: a senior officer in CENTCOM's intel branch emails a whole roster of analysts asking for — and I'm not paraphrasing — 'creative and
Rich: unconventional ways to pressure and punish Iran.'
Rich: CNN's Lillis and Cohen say it was sent Wednesday.
Sarah: Both can be true at once.
Sarah: The Al-Monitor talks story we just covered can coexist with this email.
Sarah: They're two tracks moving in the same week, exactly the kind of CENTCOM planning you'd expect under a no-deadline announcement.
Rich: Right, but I put more weight on the posture than the press release.
Rich: A brainstorming email to your analysts shows what you actually believe.
Rich: The Monday handshake is what you say into a microphone.
Sarah: The sourcing here matters.
Sarah: CNN says two people described the message, and it came from a senior officer in CENTCOM's intelligence branch.
Sarah: It was a request for ideas; no operation had been approved.
Sarah: So I'd say 'asked' rather than 'ordered.'
Rich: Sure. But here's my question for Monday: whoever Trump sits across from
Rich: are they representing the same government CENTCOM just asked its analysts how to punish creatively?
Rich: Because those might be two very different Washingtons.
Sarah: Shafaq News writes:
Quote: US forces have redirected 35 commercial vessels
Quote: disabled two ships and boarded two others under the maritime blockade on Iran
Quote: the US Central Command (CENTCOM) said on Saturday.
Quote: Yesterday, CENTCOM reported diverting 30 commercial ships, disabling two ships, and inspecting two others.
Quote: The US military resumed the blockade on July 14
Quote: targeting vessels traveling to and from Iranian ports and coastal areas in response to Iranian attacks on ships transiting Hormuz.
Rich: Five more ships redirected in one day.
Rich: Thirty on Friday, thirty-five by Saturday — and then Trump's telling us: Monday talks, no deadline, everybody relax.
Sarah: CENTCOM's own August 2 post says 35 vessels redirected, two disabled, two boarded.
Sarah: The disabled and boarded numbers held steady.
Sarah: The redirect count kept climbing.
Rich: Imagine the underwriter pricing leg thirty-one this week, then watching leg thirty-five get waved off.
Rich: Ask a tanker captain what he trusts more: the de-escalation press release or the Marine F-35 launching off the Lincoln.
Sarah: And keep the date in mind: the blockade resumed July 14 after Iranian attacks on shipping in Hormuz, per Shafaq.
Sarah: Nineteen days in, this is the operating pace.
Sarah: It's no one-off. The military track didn't pause for Monday.
Rich: And that's happening while diplomats draft: the ships are still getting turned around amid all the talk about Monday and the Oman route.
Host: Have feedback, a story idea, or a correction?
Host: Email us at iranwardaily at lantern podcasts dot com.
Host: We’d be glad to hear from you.
Host: We’ll be watching Monday afternoon’s talks with Iran — who shows up
Host: and whether any terms emerge on reopening the Strait of Hormuz or Iran’s nuclear capabilities.
Host: Links to every story are in today’s show notes if you’d like to dig deeper.
Host: That’s Iran War Daily for today.
Host: This is a Lantern Podcast.