Oman has said positive talks have been taking place with Iran over an agreement to secure a shipping route through the Strait of Hormuz, as Tehran warned that any deal would not see an immediate reopening of the vital waterway. Both sides suggested on Saturday that discussions were progressing, but a timeline on any deal being finalised remained unclear. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said talks were in their final stages but the reopening of the strait remained "subject to other conditions". That deal - called a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) - quickly fell through, as did diplomatic talks, with tit-for-tat attacks resuming just days after it was signed. Another blockade, on Saudi Arabia's ports in the Red Sea, had been imposed by Yemen's Iran-backed Houthis since 20 July.