Have the shipping water has been calmed in the Red Sea?

Hello, you're listening to the Marketplace Morning Report from the BBC World Service.

I'm Leanna Byrne. Good morning.

So for this story, we need to go back to October 2023 when Israel launched its war against Hamas and Gaza, following attacks from Hamas and Israel.

In Yemen, Iran-backed Houthi rebels got involved in

support of Hamas and have been firing missiles and drones at Israeli and merchant ships in the

Red Sea over the last 18 months. And that's caused a lot of disruption to global trade.

You see, that waterway is a global choke point, roughly 15% of world maritime trade moves through the Red Sea and the Suez Canal.

It's the fastest sea lane between Asia and Europe. To protect shipping, the US and its allies have been striking Houthi targets.

President Trump has said this would now stop as the Houthis have agreed to stand down.

The Gulf State Oman says it has negotiated a ceasefire in return for the safe passage of commercial shipping in the Red Sea.

The Omani foreign minister, Syed Badir bin Hamad al-Busidy, announced the deal in a post on X.

We have voiced part of his statement.

Efforts have resulted in a ceasefire agreement between the two sides. In the future,

neither side will target the other, including American vessels, in the Red Sea and Babelmandep

Strait, ensuring freedom of navigation and the smooth flow of international commercial shipping.

But the arrangement doesn't include Israel itself, as the BBC's Hugo Pachega explains from Jerusalem.

This was a surprise announcement that was made by the president, and there has been confirmation of what

he announced by Oman, saying that he had acted as mediator in these talks between the

Americans and the Houthis. So the Houthis would stop its attacks on vessels in the Red Sea,

and in return the U.S. would halt its attacks on Houthi positions in Yemen.

But what is very important here is that there has been no mention of

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