US president Donald Trump has called on NATO partners and China to help reopen the Strait of Hormuz, effectively closed by Iran, as major economic players began releasing strategic oil reserves today to prevent supply disruptions.
Global oil prices have risen 40% to 50% since Iran blocked the waterway and attacked energy and maritime targets in the Gulf in retaliation for the US and Israeli war against the Islamic Republic. Crude prices are hovering around $100 (approximately €88) as the Middle East war entered its third week, with Israel stating it still has “thousands of targets in Iran” and is “identifying new targets every day.”
Trump said the United States was in negotiations with Iran, but that Tehran was not ready for a deal to end the war — though Iran’s foreign minister had previously denied any talks with Washington. “I don’t think they’re ready. But they’re getting very close,” Trump said.
Trump appealed over the weekend to countries including China, France, Japan, South Korea and the United Kingdom to send ships to escort oil tankers through the strait. “It’s more than fair that those who benefit from the strait help ensure nothing bad happens there,” Trump told the Financial Times on Sunday. Unlike the United States, Europe and China rely heavily on the Gulf for their oil imports.
Trump threatened to postpone a planned summit with Chinese president Xi Jinping later this month if Beijing does not cooperate in reopening the strait, and claimed that a lack of response or a negative response to his request would be “very damaging to the future of NATO.” Both Tokyo and Canberra, however, said they had no plans to deploy forces.
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Iran warned other countries not to get involved in the war, with foreign minister Abbas Araghchi, in a phone call with his French counterpart Jean-Noël Barrot, urging countries to “refrain from any action that could lead to escalation and expansion of the conflict” and calling on neighbouring countries to “expel the foreign aggressors,” arguing that the US security “umbrella” in the region was “inviting, rather than deterring, problems.”
Iran has launched attacks against Middle Eastern countries hosting US forces, and the Italian armed forces said a drone attack on Ali Al Salem air base in Kuwait — which hosts both US and Italian forces — destroyed an Italian unmanned aircraft but caused no casualties. Italian foreign minister Antonio Tajani played down the attack — the second against an Italian base in the Middle East this week — insisting: “We are not at war with anyone.”
“It’s more than fair that those who benefit from the strait help ensure nothing bad happens there,” Trump told the Financial Times on Sunday. (Credits: Kenny HOLSTON / POOL / AFP)
Iraqi authorities said rockets injured five people at Baghdad airport, which hosts a US diplomatic facility, while Iran’s Revolutionary Guard claimed that around 700 missiles and 3,600 drones had so far been fired at US and Israeli targets.
Saudi Arabia intercepted more than 60 drones today according to defence ministry data, while Dubai airport briefly suspended flights after a drone-related incident caused a fire nearby. French president Emmanuel Macron told Iranian president Masoud Pezeshkian it was “unacceptable” to attack French interests after an Iranian-made drone killed a French soldier in the Kurdistan region of Iraq. The war has also spread to Lebanon, where Israel launched a new strike on the southern suburbs of Beirut on Sunday.
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On the economic front, the International Energy Agency announced that its members will begin releasing 400 million barrels of oil from strategic reserves, with Asia-Pacific countries making reserves available immediately and Europe and the Americas to follow in the coming weeks. Japan, which depends on the Middle East for 95% of its oil imports, announced today in an official gazette notice that the country’s oil reserve level “is being reduced.” Australia urged its population to avoid speculation and panic buying as prices surge, while Indian restaurants have been forced to adapt their menus to save cooking gas.
More than 1,200 people have been killed by US and Israeli strikes according to Iran’s health ministry, figures that could not be independently verified. The UN refugee agency says up to 3.2 million people have been displaced inside Iran.
