Iran said on Wednesday it is in the “final stage” of drafting an agreement with Oman over the Strait of Hormuz, following US president Donald Trump saying a deal could be announced this week.The deal could reopen the critical waterway, but the agreement is likely to be contingent on the US lifting its blockade on Iran’s ports.The Trump administration has previously ruled out any deal that would cement Iran’s grip over the strait.Iran has insisted on some measure of control over the strait, saying it will not go back to being an open international waterway, as it was before the war.In an interview on Wednesday night, Trump was upbeat on the talks with Tehran. “I ​hear they are doing very well,” he sai in an interview with FOX5 Las Vegas journalist Tom Durian. ​Even as the Iran war has entered its sixth month and the two sides ⁠have so far failed to reach a permanent end to the conflict, ‌Trump ‌has ​repeatedly attempted to portray the talks positively.“I am not looking to kill people and ‌totally obliterate everything, and that’s where ​we were headed. And they wanted to negotiate and we’re doing that, ⁠and it seems to ⁠be working ​out quite well,” he said in the interview.President Donald Trump: said talks with Iran were 'working ​out quite well'. Photograph: Mark Schiefelbein/AP Closure of the strait, through which a fifth of the world’s traded oil and natural gas once passed, has driven up the price of fuel and basic goods, roiling the global economy.Trump is also under mounting pressure to end an unpopular war in advance of US congressional elections.An Iranian foreign ministry spokesman said the agreement with Oman is in the “final stage” of drafting and that a joint statement will be issued “if certain parties do not obstruct this process,” apparently referring to the USThe draft deal to reopen the strait was awaiting final approval from Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, sources said. Khamenei is believed to have been wounded in the war’s opening strikes and has not been seen in public since then.The officials portrayed the potential deal as a temporary solution to the dispute over the strait. They said it is tied to an agreement reached between the US and Iran in June, which aimed at ending the fighting and reopening the waterway but ultimately collapsed.They said the potential deal will pave the way for the US and Iran to resume negotiations on Tehran’s nuclear programme.Earlier, they said the potential agreement would have ships enter the Persian Gulf through an Iranian-controlled route and exit through a route controlled by Oman. Service fees would be charged for providing security and preserving the maritime environment.The US has said it is strongly opposed to any arrangement that would see Iran charge fees.US vice president JD Vance acknowledged on Wednesday that it can seem like the US is not making progress in Iran, describing the effort to end the war as “messy” and that “it’s going to take some time”.Vance told Fox News the Iranians are “extraordinarily difficult people” and that efforts to try to resolve the war sometimes require moving backward before moving forward. – AP