U.S. President Donald Trump said on Tuesday (May 5, 2026) he was halting the US military operation to escort ships through the Strait of Hormuz after just one day, in a bid to reach a deal with Iran to end the West Asia war.

Mr. Trump’s so-called “Project Freedom” to help vessels leave the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow chokepoint to the Gulf where Iran has seized control in response to being attacked, began on Monday (May 4, 2026).

The United States will launch an effort on Monday (May 4, 2026) to “guide” stranded ships from the Iran-gripped Strait of Hormuz, President Donald Trump said, giving few details about what could be a sweeping effort to help hundreds of vessels and some 20,000 seafarers.

Mr. Trump said in a social media post on Sunday (May 3, 2026) that “neutral and innocent” countries have been affected by the Iran war, and “we have told these Countries that we will guide their Ships safely out of these restricted Waterways, so that they can freely and ably get on with their business.”

Oil prices rose Monday (April 27, 2026) while stocks were mixed with the United States and Iran no closer to ending their eight-week-old war after U.S. President Donald Trump cancelled his envoys’ trip for peace talks at the weekend.

Hopes that the two sides could make progress during negotiations in Pakistan were dashed on Saturday (April 26, 2026) by the U.S. President, who said there was no point “sitting around talking about nothing”.

He said on Fox News that he told his team: “We have all the cards. They can call us anytime they want, but you’re not going to be making any more 18-hour flights to sit around talking about nothing.”

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However, he told reporters a revised proposal from Iran had followed within minutes of his decision.

“They gave us a paper that should have been better and — interestingly — immediately, when I cancelled it, within 10 minutes, we got a new paper that was much better,” he said, without elaborating.

Asked separately whether the cancellation meant a return to hostilities, Mr. Trump said: “No, it doesn’t mean that. We haven’t thought about it yet.”

But even before Mr. Trump’s move, prospects for talks were uncertain, with Iranian state television saying Mr. Araghchi had no plans to meet U.S. officials and that Islamabad would act as a conduit for proposals.

Axios on Sunday (April 26, 2026) cited unnamed sources including a U.S. official as saying Tehran had provided a new offer to reopen the Strait of Hormuz — through which a fifth of global oil and gas passes — with nuclear talks pushed back to a later date.

Talks between the rivals have reached an impasse, with Iran hitting out at a U.S. blockade of its ports and the White House demanding the Islamic republic allow ships to transit the crucial waterway.

Iranian state media said on Monday (April 27, 2026) that the country’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi had arrived in Saint Petersburg for talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin. The trip comes after visits to Islamabad and Oman in a flurry of regional diplomacy.

Oil prices rose more than 1% on Monday (April 27, 2026), though lingering hopes that a deal can eventually be reached has tempered the gains.

However, Fawad Razaqzada of Forex.com, warned they could surge again at any time.

“If tensions were to escalate further, particularly into open conflict, there’s a clear risk of a sharper spike,” he wrote.

“For now though, as long as shipping through the Strait remains constrained, that premium is unlikely to fade. Until there’s a credible breakthrough, the path of least resistance still looks higher, with a move beyond $110 appearing increasingly plausible.”

Stocks fluctuated through the morning, with Tokyo, Seoul and Taipei sharply up on the back of healthy AI-fuelled tech gains following U.S. giant Intel’s healthy revenue forecasts.

There were also gains in Shanghai and Jakarta, while Sydney, Singapore and Manila fell and Hong Kong was flat.

That came after the S&P 500 and Nasdaq ended Friday at fresh record highs.

Investors were also looking ahead to earnings this week from US tech titans Alphabet, Meta, Microsoft, Amazon and Apple, while the Federal Reserve will hold a closely watched policy meeting at which it is expected to stand pat on interest rates.

The United States expressed confidence that peace talks ​with Iran would go ahead in Pakistan and a senior Iranian official said Tehran was considering joining, but significant hurdles and uncertainty remained as the end of a ceasefire ‌approached.

U.S. President Donald Trump wants an agreement that would prevent further oil price rises and stock markets shocks but ​has insisted Iran cannot have the means to develop a nuclear weapon. Tehran hopes to leverage its control of the Strait ⁠of Hormuz to strike a deal that averts a restart of the war, eases sanctions but does not impede its nuclear program.

Two supertankers carrying Iranian crude have arrived at Indian ports on both the east and west coasts, marking the first such deliveries in nearly seven years, according to ship-tracking data.

Felicity, a very large crude carrier operated by the National Iranian Tanker Company, anchored off Sikka on Gujarat’s coast late on Sunday (April 12, 2026), carrying about 2 million barrels loaded at Kharg Island in mid-March.

An Iranian delegation landed here in the wee hours of Saturday (April 11, 2026) for talks with the U.S., as the world keeps its fingers crossed for an agreement to end the conflict between the two sides.

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, while announcing a two-week ceasefire on Wednesday (April 10, 2026), had said that the U.S. and Iran would hold talks in Islamabad, tagging the presidents of the U.S. and Iran in his statement on X.

Pakistan on Thursday (April 9, 2026) beefed up security in the national capital as it prepares for high-stakes talks between the U.S. and Iran this weekend with anxiety, amid a warning from top Iranian leadership that Israeli strikes on Lebanon would render negotiations meaningless.

The U.S. and Iran agreed to a two-week conditional ceasefire on Wednesday (April 8, 2026) followed by a face-to-face meeting in Islamabad to settle the differences and convert the ongoing truce into a lasting peace.

Hours before the proposed talks, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said that the Israeli attack on Lebanon blatantly violated the initial ceasefire and would render negotiations meaningless.