Indirect contacts between the US and Iran have entered the final stage, Al Arabiya sources say

US-Iran engagement has historically run through intermediaries, with Gulf and European channels serving as the conduit when direct contact is politically untenable, and headlines sourced to regional outlets citing unnamed sources are the standard way these tracks first surface. The phrase 'final stage' is doing the work here: in past episodes of this kind, such characterisations have preceded both breakthroughs and collapses, and the market has tended to price the direction of travel rather than the outcome until something is signed or formally abandoned. The transmission channel for crude is the risk premium embedded in front-month WTI and Brent, specifically the supply-disruption tail around Gulf exports and shipping insurance through the strait, which bleeds out on de-escalation headlines and rebuilds on any denial or deadlock. The distinction worth drawing is between a narrow arrangement, detainee or nuclear understandings, and a broader sanctions-easing track, since only the latter carries direct implications for Iranian export volumes. The tells to watch are confirmation or denial from Washington and Tehran, whether the channel's mediator comments publicly, and any movement in physical differentials and tanker rates rather than just flat price. Single-source reporting of this kind has a mixed record and is often walked back within the session.