New Delhi, Aug. 26 -- The tankers anchored outside the Strait of Hormuz have been waiting since February. On Tuesday, for the first time since the US-Israel war on Iran upended the world's most critical oil corridor, there was something concrete to wait for.

a "phased framework" that would open a temporary joint navigation corridor through the strait and launch a coordinated mine-clearing mission in waters where oil throughput has collapsed from 20 million to 5 million barrels per day.

"We expect to soon announce a temporary corridor through the strait," Albusaidi told reporters in Tehran. "Future management of the strait and a permanent solution will follow in due course."

The gap between "soon" and "now" is where the difficulty lives...