Oil prices jumped in early trading in Asian markets today.
The development “comes” in the absence of a continuation in talks US-Iran to end the war in the Middle East and while ship traffic in the Sea of Hormuz remains very limited due to the double Iranian and US blockade.
The price of a barrel of North Sea Brent is up 2.11% to $107.55 and that of West Texas Intermediate (WTI), the US benchmark variety, is up 2.14% to $96.42.
Efforts to restart bilateral negotiations, the first round of which was fruitless in Islamabad earlier this month, have so far failed to make progress.
U.S. President Donald Trump on Saturday canceled a trip that his son-in-law and adviser Jared Kushner and his special envoy Steve Whitcoff were scheduled to make to Pakistan. “I said there will no longer” be direct talks in Islamabad, the US president told Fox News yesterday. “If they want to talk, they can come (to the US), or they can call us, we have very good and secure phone lines.”
“We have done a very good job, this will be over soon and we will be very victorious,” President Trump also said.
The Strait of Hormuz, through which 20 percent of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas (LNG) consumed under normal circumstances passes, is under a double blockade by both Iranians and Americans, the US Armed Forces announced the interception in the Arabian Sea of a ship under sanctions for carrying “Iranian energy products” before the tanker turned around and began its return to Iran “escorted”.
According to the latest update from the US Joint Forces Command joint command responsible for the Middle East region (CENTCOM, “Central Command”), the passage of “38 ships”has been blocked since the blockade of Iranian ports was imposed.
The Iranian Armed Forces Command has again threatened the US that there will be military retaliation if the US blockade of Iranian ports continues, denouncing acts of “piracy” at sea.
