Iran Rejects a Hormuz Deal and Oil Jumps
Iran rejected an Omani proposal to share control of the Strait of Hormuz equally, sending oil prices sharply higher as the truce unravelled. A deputy foreign minister said Tehran would manage shipping only on its own side of the vital waterway and would not accept an even split or allow a third country to clear mines. Brent crude jumped around 4 per cent, back above $85 a barrel.
The collapse of the Hormuz talks — through which a fifth of the world’s oil passes — reversed a slide that had taken crude towards $80 only a day earlier, when a deal had seemed within reach. Al Jazeera reported that Iran had also struck three tankers in the strait, though that could not be confirmed. For consumers, the renewed spike threatens to feed back into petrol prices and inflation just as they had begun to ease. The world’s most important oil chokepoint is once again the fulcrum of the war. Watch the oil price and any move by Iran to close the strait.