US President Donald Trump has said that Iran will be hit very hard if it does not open the Strait of Hormuz to traffic in the near future; meanwhile, oil prices have fallen on hopes of a new agreement between Washington and Tehran, writes the BBC.
Trump made the threat after meetings with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, who both reported that talks were moving forward, and the Strait of Hormuz could be opened to traffic as early as this week.
The price of Brent crude fell by almost 5% to 80 dollars a barrel on news of a possible resumption of traffic. However, the failure of previous agreements has led to an unstable situation in the oil market, and prices for consumers are rising.
Trump said the talks were going well and insisted Iran was eager to reach an agreement to end the five-month-long standoff. The US Central Command said the southern route through the Strait of Hormuz was still open to traffic and all commercial ships could use it. Rubio also said progress had been made in talks with Iran and Oman to get ships out of the Persian Gulf. He said a final deal had not yet been reached but hoped it would happen soon.
Bessent added that it could be reached as early as the 5th or 6th of August.
While US officials have reported progress in the talks, it is still unclear what a potential deal might look like.
Iran has said it is not holding talks with the Americans and does not plan to do so, and instead all discussions are with Oman. An Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman said talks with Oman on regulating traffic in the Strait of Hormuz were progressing well.
Meanwhile, Qatar, the main mediator between Washington and Tehran, has said it is continuing efforts with other countries to find a diplomatic solution to end the war, but admitted that there are currently no plans for direct talks between the warring parties.
While the conflict continues, the United States has already used up most of its long-range missile stockpile.
The Strait of Hormuz is a key point in the talks. Before the US and Israel launched the war with strikes on the last day of February, a fifth of the world’s oil and natural gas was exported from the Persian Gulf countries through the Strait of Hormuz. Iran has stopped traffic in the strait, while the US has established a naval blockade, preventing ships from leaving Iranian ports. In turn, on the 20th of July, Houthi rebels began a blockade of Saudi ports in the Red Sea, and attacks on ships have been reported in the last week of July. An Indian-flagged ship was sunk by a missile on the 4th of August Analysts say the threat to ships transporting oil in the Middle East is the greatest since the war began.
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