New Delhi, July 11 -- MUSCAT - On Saturday morning, the Iranian foreign minister flew to Oman to negotiate. On the same morning, Donald Trump repeated that the ceasefire was over. And on the same morning, Iranian officials were privately telling Trump's advisers that they had made a mistake and wanted to keep talking.

All three things were simultaneously true, and that is the shape of the US-Iran conflict as it enters its current phase.

Abbas Araghchi arrived in Muscat for talks with Omani Foreign Minister Badr Albusaidi, focused specifically on Hormuz shipping safety and the resumption of commercial traffic through the strait. Iran's IRNA state news agency quoted foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei saying the visit "will be focu...