Despite all the difficulties, as numerous as they are, something is moving in the Strait of Hormuz. Even before the United States and Iran agreed to reopen it, the world’s most important energy shipping lane has shown signs of a slight loosening. Despite the double blockade — imposed first by Tehran and then by Washington — the number of ships managing to transit has grown in recent days. Some — the majority — do so with the permission of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. Others are escorted by the U.S. Navy. A few take the risk on their own.

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In the war with Iran, the sense of urgency has shifted sides. In February, the United States and Israel judged it so urgent to start the conflict that they were prepared to launch a massive strike and kill the supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, even amid negotiations; three months later it is Donald Trump who is trying to keep alive the talks that would definitively end the conflict, while Tehran remains firm. The U.S. president showed that attitude again on Monday when he ordered Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, to halt the airstrikes the latter had announced on Beirut. The aim? To prevent the feared derailment of negotiations with the ayatollahs.

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Talks to end the war with Iran and reopen the Strait of Hormuz appear, for the first time in three months, to be moderately on track. At least that is the impression conveyed by public statements and leaks from both sides: water is beginning to fill the deep negotiating well, which until now had been practically dry.

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