The price of Brent crude, a benchmark for Europe, registered before the start of trading on the continent’s stock exchanges a decline of 1.6%, to 91 dollars per barrel, its lowest level since the end of August, after United States President Donald Trump said that there are “advances” to end the war against Iran.
Although the North American leader has defended maintaining the naval blockade on Iran in the Strait of Hormuz, he believes that the conflict will end “quite soon.”
“Military action does not seem to be something very necessary, but we have it loaded and ready, prepared to use it if there is a reason. There is progress toward the end of this conflict. I think it will end quite soon,” he said in a press appearance at the White House.
Trump stressed that the United States has sent a third aircraft carrier to the area “just in case.” “We have many,” he reiterated. “They are loaded and ready, and I hope we do not have to use them,” he added.
The president also disseminated a message on social media in which he states that Washington’s Arab partners have asked him to maintain the “naval blockade” against Iran.
“Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Kuwait and others prefer the ‘status quo,’ in other words, that the Greatest Naval Blockade in History and the new Operation Iron Gate continue,” he said.
In addition, he reiterated that Iran “cannot have a nuclear weapon and that is not negotiable.” The United States “has them loaded and ready (...), but I think it seems quite unlikely.”
After these statements, West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude oil, a benchmark in the United States, fell back 1.7% before the opening of European markets, to 85.3 dollars.
Iran denies progress and accuses Trump of “fake news”
Mohsen Rezaei, secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, firmly rejected Trump’s words about alleged progress toward closing the standoff between the two countries.
Rezaei called the statements by the U.S. president “fake news” and urged Washington to accept a surrender under the conditions set by Tehran.
"The war against Iran has already ruined the Government of the United States, but Washington is thrashing about like a desperate player. Back off. Stop manufacturing 'fake news' about imaginary talks. Stop denying the new order in Western Asia. It's time to give in to the seven conditions that Iran has repeatedly set," Rezaei has posted on social media.
Attack on an Aramco pipeline in Saudi Arabia
At the same time, tension continues to rise between the coalition led by Saudi Arabia and the internationally recognized Yemeni forces against the Iran-backed Houthi rebels.
The East-West pipeline of Saudi state oil company Aramco, which runs through the Medina region, in the west of the country, has suffered an attack that has sparked a small-scale fire at the facilities, according to a statement from the Saudi Ministry of Energy.
The emergency teams dispatched to the site managed to put out the fire in a short time, with no deaths or injuries reported and without impact on operations or on the usual crude oil pumping pace of the pipeline, according to the official note.
After the attack, technicians activated the safety protocols and contingency plans to cordon off the area and check the security of the complex, a strategic infrastructure due to the situation in the Strait of Hormuz in the context of the confrontation that keeps the United States and Israel with the Iranian regime.
Although the official assessment does not expressly attribute responsibility for the attack, the incident is part of the escalation of violence between the coalition led by Riyadh and the allied Yemeni forces against the Houthis.