CENTCOM commander Adm. Brad Cooper said the Strait of Hormuz shipping lanes are "open, and momentum is building," claiming mines cleared — while roughly 24 oil tankers transited against a pre-war daily average of about 120-130. A waterway declared open while running at a fifth of normal traffic is a claim, not a reopening, and the gap between the two is the most checkable thing in the story. Iranian foreign minister Abbas Araghchi said at 13:42 ET that diplomacy could resume "if Washington abandons its pressure campaign"; Trump said Iran is "begging to make a deal" while adding "I don't want to meet, they do." (CBS News live blog, ET-timestamped entries, Fortune) The US Treasury designated Bank Melli's Dubai branch manager Reza Mohammad Taeedi and Hong-Kong-registered Kameng Trading Ltd., and cut the UAE branch of Egypt's Banque Misr off from US financial institutions, in the fourth day of "Operation Economic Outcast." This map had logged none of the campaign's three dates — launched 08-24 under an "Economic D-Day" framing, Secretary Scott Bessent's remarks 08-26, today's UAE action — meaning a named multi-day US financial campaign against Iran ran all week unrecorded here. (Treasury press-release index, read directly, CNBC) <!-- Split from Red Sea Shock 2026-07-30 (ben-steer): "the conflict in Iran is the world news thread; Red Sea oil shock IS a money thread." This file's 07-23 through 07-28 entries are backfilled from that thread's own history — same origin event, conflict-narrative content only. The market-reaction content (oil prices, shipping data, sanctions, CDS) stayed on red-sea-oil-shock. -->