Investing.com -- The Trump administration has told mediators it has no interest in returning to the June memorandum of understanding with Iran, the Wall Street Journal reported Thursday, citing people familiar with the matter, leaving diplomats without a framework to restart talks on reopening the Strait of Hormuz. Following the report, crude oil prices surged as market anxiety flared, with Brent climbing above $88 a barrel while major equity indexes weakened.

The preliminary deal that President Trump signed at the Palace of Versailles, which Vice President JD Vance helped negotiate, aimed to reopen the Strait of Hormuz and launch talks on Iran’s nuclear program in exchange for sanctions relief and Tehran’s access to its frozen assets. It collapsed within weeks after Iran began attacking ships to assert control over the waterway. Trump has since settled on a policy of maximum economic pressure, and according to the WSJ, is no longer interested in the MOU, which drew sharp criticism domestically as being soft on Iran.

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps made clear Wednesday that its position is equally rigid. "If the United States stops obstructing and returns to the memorandum of understanding, we can open the Strait of Hormuz within the framework of the agreement reached," IRGC spokesman Brig. Gen. Hossein Mohebbi told Iranian state television. "Our conditions must be accepted by the United States." Conservatives in Tehran have interpreted Paragraph 5 of the June MOU as codifying Iran’s authority to set terms for strait access, a reading Washington has not publicly addressed.

The impasse has paralyzed a week of intensive shuttle diplomacy. Pakistan’s army chief Asim Munir traveled to Tehran but left with little progress, the WSJ reported. Oman’s foreign minister followed, attempting to finalize a transit-lane agreement that was meant to serve as a stepping stone toward broader reopening talks; that effort has stalled, with Iran pushing for changes that would give it greater control over traffic. Iran claimed the Oman meeting produced an agreement on transit routes, but Muscat has not confirmed any deal, and Iranian officials have offered contradictory accounts of what was agreed. Qatar’s Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani also met Iran’s foreign minister in Tehran; a joint statement afterward said both sides discussed heading off escalation and laying groundwork for talks, but announced no breakthrough.

University of Birmingham researcher Umer Karim, quoted by Reuters, put the situation plainly: "The old MOU is essentially dead in all aspects. The task of the mediators to have the two sides reach some sort of a compromise have become even more difficult in the current circumstances."

On the sanctions front, the U.S. launched "Operation Economic Outcast" on August 25, sanctioning nearly 60 entities and expanding secondary sanctions to five sectors: digital assets, technology, gold, aviation, and shipping, according to the U.S. Treasury. Secretary Scott Bessent described it as an "economic onslaught against Iran’s financial connections around the globe."

Shipping traffic through the Strait of Hormuz rose slightly to 10 visible commodity vessel transits on Wednesday from 8 on Tuesday, but remained well below the 10-day moving average of roughly 15 vessels, Reuters reported, citing Kpler data. A tanker was struck by an unknown projectile on Thursday, sparking a fire that was later extinguished, the UK Maritime Trade Operations agency said.

Friday, August 28, marks the six-month anniversary of the strikes on Iran, a symbolic milestone that analysts say may prompt both sides to reassess a conflict that has dragged on with no resolution.