Talks or no talks?

Happy hump day, friends. We’ve had another blessedly quiet couple of days, courtesy of progress on talks we’re not really sure is there, with conflicting accounts on negotiations over the US-Iran war.

US President Donald Trump claimed earlier this week that talks with Tehran are underway and that the Strait of Hormuz would imminently reopen. Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei denied ongoing talks with Washington, stating instead that Tehran is discussing shipping administration in the contested waterway with Oman. And when Trump said the two sides are close to an agreement, Iran sounded a less certain note, saying that an agreement on reopening the Strait of Hormuz would remain close so long as the US continued to threaten Iran.

Big Oil is having its moment courtesy of a war nobody wanted. BP posted its highest quarterly net income since 3Q 2022, with underlying replacement cost profit of USD 5.7 bn for 2Q 2026 — beating the USD 5 bn analyst consensus — with oil prices running hot on the Iran war, according to the company’s earnings. It was also a strong quarter for Aramco, as we note in today’s Markets + Deals column, as the oil giant sold less for more.

Elsewhere, the cybersecurity land-grab rolls on: Visa is paying USD 2.4 bn for Israel’s BioCatch, a firm whose whole pitch is behavioral biometrics — software that clocks the fraudster not by a stolen password but by the way they swipe, type, and hold the phone. Which is a slightly unsettling thing to sit with over your morning coffee. Somewhere in a data center, your thumb has a reputation.

*** A QUICK PROGRAMMING NOTE- EnterpriseAM MENA+ is taking a summer publication holiday and will be back in your inboxes on 17 August, Monday, at the usual time. –Salma