Iran and Oman agreed the coordinates of a route through the Strait of Hormuz — the first physically specific outcome of the Omani-mediated track, and a step beyond the drafted proposal Qatar reported on Day 158. Iranian officials described the talks as positive. The corridor remains the narrow arrangement Baghaei outlined on Day 157: a defined path with entry and exit lanes, not a general reopening of the waterway.

[Al Jazeera] [Britannica/AP]

Speaking on Fox News, Trump said the Strait of Hormuz would be reopened "soon" or he would launch a harsh new attack on Iran. He described discussions with Tehran as very good, while warning that if Iran backed out of its commitments he would return to striking. The Associated Press framed the impasse plainly: both sides say a deal is close, but one or both would have to back down. The pause in US strikes now rests on a verbal timeline with no published date.

[CNN] [Britannica/AP]

Tehran set out what the Omani route does not solve: an agreement between Iran and Oman alone cannot guarantee safe passage while the US naval blockade and other aggressive and threatening actions remain in place. That is the reciprocal demand behind the corridor — and CENTCOM’s blockade, which had redirected 44 vessels as of Day 157, is still being enforced. The two sides are negotiating different objects: Washington wants the strait opened, Tehran wants the counter-blockade lifted.

[CNN]

Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani urged all parties to remain committed to dialogue and to implement what was agreed within the framework of the US-Iran Memorandum of Understanding, saying any agreement should ensure freedom of navigation in the strait while preserving regional security and safeguarding the gains achieved. Notably, the mediator is anchoring the current effort to the June 17 Islamabad Memorandum rather than treating it as a new negotiation.

[CNN]

A vessel sank after being attacked in the Bab al-Mandeb, according to the UK Maritime Trade Operations centre, with reporting identifying an Indian-flagged ship struck by an unidentified projectile off the Yemeni coast; no casualties were reported. The Houthis separately claimed an attack on a Saudi oil tanker. Oil prices rose on the day after two sessions of steep losses, with the Red Sea disruption and conflicting Hormuz signals pulling the market back the other way.

[BBC] [CNN]

Israel issued its first evacuation order in southern Lebanon since June and launched fresh strikes, hitting a cemetery and surrounding areas in the town of Tebnine and residential areas in al-Mansouri. At least twelve people were killed, the deadliest toll since the ceasefire took hold. Clashes on the ground killed at least one Lebanese person and two Israeli soldiers, and US-mediated Israel-Lebanon talks — the seventh round, which opened on Day 158 — ended earlier than expected amid the strikes. Ledger note: this tracker ingested the Tebnine strike twice under variant transliterations (Tebnine and Tibnin); the toll is twelve, counted once.

[Guardian] [Al Jazeera] [NYT] [CNN]

Israeli strikes on Gaza continued after the peace-plan announcement, with reporting noting the pace had slowed following a meeting in Jerusalem between Netanyahu and two senior Board of Peace envoys. In the West Bank, Israeli forces conducted a large-scale raid on the Qalandiya refugee camp with entries into homes and shops, leaving eight injured — logged twice in ingestion, counted once. In southern Syria, Israeli forces destroyed farmland and agricultural infrastructure. Reporting from Bandar Abbas described a city where the ceasefire never arrived.

[NYT] [Al Jazeera] [Al Jazeera] [Al Jazeera]

Tracker status holds at WAR RESUMED. Day 159 delivers the most tangible progress of this diplomatic phase — agreed coordinates are a map, not a communique — but it arrives attached to an American deadline and an Iranian precondition that point in opposite directions. The strait is still closed, the US blockade is still enforced, a ship sank at the other chokepoint, and the Lebanon front had its deadliest day since its ceasefire while talks about it collapsed early. Progress and deterioration are running in parallel on separate fronts.