US President Donald Trump on Monday called for a “pause” on all military strikes against Iranian power plants and energy infrastructure for a five-day period.The announcement has led to a 7 per cent drop in Brent crude, the global oil benchmark, to around USD 104 a barrel, which was USD 65 before the conflict commenced on February 28.The White House said in post on X that the pause is “subject to the success of the ongoing meetings and discussions”. The decision comes after Trump threatened to “obliterate” Iran’s energy network if it didn’t reopen the Strait of Hormuz within 48 hours.Iran’s Mehr News Agency quoted the country’s foreign ministry saying Trump’s statements of a five-day pause “are part of efforts to reduce energy prices and buy time to implement his military plans”.Iran’s Fars News Agency, affiliated with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), claims there’s been “no direct or indirect” contact between Iran and Trump, contradicting the US President’s statement.Meanwhile, the White House also shared a post Trump put on Truth Social that the US and Iran have had “very good and productive conversations” regarding a complete resolution of hostilities.“Based on the tenor and tone of these in depth, detailed, and constructive conversations, which will continue throughout the week, I have instructed the Department of War to postpone any and all military strikes against Iranian power plants and energy infrastructure for a five-day period, subject to the success of the ongoing meetings and discussions.”Fars News Agency claims the US pause came after Iran warned of targeting energy infrastructure across the Gulf and called it a “defeat for the devil”.Shortly before Trump posted his Truth Social statement, Oman’s foreign minister, Badr Albusaidi, wrote on X that his country was “working intensively” to “put in place safe passage arrangements” for the Strait of Hormuz.“Whatever your view of Iran, this war is not of their making. This is already causing widespread economic problems and I fear they promise to get much worse if the war continues,” Albusaidi, who mediated the latest nuclear talks between Iran and the US, wrote.Earlier writing in The Economist on Wednesday, Albusaidi said the US and Israel’s “unlawful” war on Iran was “a grave miscalculation” which put the Gulf economies in harm’s way. He had said: “This is not America’s war, and there is no likely scenario in which both Israel and America will get what they want from it.”