Brent dips below $90 as Rubio sees ‘no need’ for Iran combat
Brent crude fell to $89.03 on Tuesday, its lowest since 31 August, after Marco Rubio told G7 counterparts in Paris that “the economic campaign against Iran is so devastating that right now there is no need for major combat operations”, before settling near $92. Pump prices follow: America’s average dipped below $4 for the first time since July and the AA says UK petrol, at 169.7p, should fall another 10p. Iran dismissed France’s fridge-sabotage accusation as “baseless and hostile”.
Mr Rubio said Donald Trump “has concluded that for the time being there is no need for major combat operations because we are achieving the same objective by economic means”, while warning that the military “stands ready” to exact “a terrible price” if red lines are crossed; the president had said on Monday that “Iran militarily is effectively over”. Oil has now unwound most of the war premium that took Brent from about $60 in January to $130 in the spring, and analysts at ING describe traders stripping out geopolitical risk, though FGE’s Fereidun Fesharaki “just can’t see a deal being made” and gives the diplomacy a two-week window. On the cyber front, Iran’s foreign ministry issued its first response to Jean-Noël Barrot’s attribution of October’s supermarket attacks to the Revolutionary Guard’s Shahid Kaveh unit; Paris has summoned Tehran’s ambassador and is pursuing EU sanctions and arrest warrants for the unit’s head and two deputies. Esmaeil Baghaei says Iran “remains committed to the NPT” but “we cannot act like normal circumstances”; the IAEA says requested access has not been granted. Watch the Qatari channel and Friday’s weekly oil close.