Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesperson says negotiations with Oman are progressing, with the two sides holding constructive talks on a new framework and exchanging maps over the past seven to eight days for review, IRNA reports

Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesperson says negotiations with Oman are progressing, with the two sides holding constructive talks on a new framework and exchanging maps over the past seven to eight days for review, IRNA reports.

Oman has long served as the back-channel of choice between Tehran and Western or regional counterparties, and rounds described as constructive with documents exchanged have historically preceded either de-escalatory agreements or prolonged stalemate; the exchange of maps is notable because it suggests the substance is demarcation or access-related rather than purely declaratory. Episodes of active Gulf mediation have tended to bleed risk premium out of crude gradually rather than in a single move, with the front of the curve and prompt timespreads the first places any softening shows, since the premium there reflects immediate supply-disruption probability rather than the long-run balance. The distinction worth drawing is between a framework agreement, which caps upside risk on supply headlines, and a technical exchange, which can drag on without market consequence; map-swapping fits the latter category. Language from a foreign ministry spokesperson carried through state media is the standard Iranian signalling channel and has historically been calibrated for domestic and negotiating audiences as much as for markets, so tone alone has been a weak predictor of outcomes. What follows in comparable episodes is either a confirmation from the Omani side or silence, and Omani acknowledgment has tended to be the tell that a round is substantive. Until then this sits in the category of incremental de-escalation noise rather than a repricing event.