Iran called on the United States to accept defeat on Saturday, while President Donald Trump criticized Tehran as “very evil” and told Americans to prepare for continued high fuel prices as a result of the war.
Progress toward peace talks and the movement of oil tankers through the strategic Strait of Hormuz has remained stalled, with no sign that the warring parties are moving toward ending the conflict that the United States and Israel began on February 28.
Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Gharibabadi said on the
The price of gasoline in the United States has risen by 29 percent year-on-year, and Iran is also feeling the impact
Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said that Iran has not decided to resume talks with the United States. He told Iranian newspaper Shahrara News in an interview published on Saturday that Washington must meet conditions related to the strait in order to resume shipping in the waterway that handled a fifth of the world’s oil before the war.
Trump urged Americans to accept slightly higher gasoline prices as the conflict continues.
He told a political rally in Garden City, New York, on Friday that paying “very little for your gasoline” was worth the cost of ensuring that a “very evil country” could not acquire a nuclear weapon, one of his stated justifications for the war.
Trump said: “After we finish defeating Iran… very soon I will declare that the Strait of Hormuz is a territory belonging to the United States.”
Throughout the conflict, the president has alternated between threats of escalation and assurances that a peace agreement is imminent.
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In a trend that has stoked inflation and disappointed voters, the average price of a gallon of gasoline in the United States reached about $4.08 on Friday, up 29 percent from the previous year, according to the American Automobile Association.
Trump, a Republican, campaigned for re-election on a promise to reduce energy costs, and Democrats are seeking to make the fallout from the war an issue in November’s congressional elections.
Crude oil futures rose US$1 per barrel on Friday. Brent crude futures LCOc1 were on track for a weekly rise of 6.0 percent and West Texas Intermediate CLc1 5.4 percent.
Tehran has also stepped up its rhetoric in recent days, as attempts to reach a permanent end to the war appear to have reached a dead end.
“The Strait of Hormuz cannot be seized with a tweet, an aircraft carrier, an order, or an election speech,” Gharibabadi said.
Despite Iran’s defiant tone, there have also been signs of economic losses there.
President Masoud Pezeshkian, in statements to state television, blamed the rise in inflation on the US blockade of Iranian ports and sanctions on Iranian oil exports.
No crude oil ships transit the strait
Both Trump and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent pledged to inflict more financial damage on Iran. Besant told Newsmax’s “Rob Schmidt Tonight” on Thursday that announcements of further measures against Iran will be made next week.
Tehran describes its imposition of traffic through the strait as a blockade, which is the term Washington uses for its threat against Iranian ships leaving its ports.
Trump said: “What we are doing is a great service to the world, not just ourselves… and we are doing a really great job.”
Only two ships passed through the Strait of Hormuz on Friday without any crude oil shipments appearing, according to an analysis by ship-tracking firm Kpler. Some ships may cross the strait undetected with their transponders turned off, but the numbers are nowhere near the more than 130 ships that crossed the strait daily before the war.
Ships that dare to sail in the strait without Iranian permission risk missile or drone strikes.
The Emirates News Agency (WAM) reported that the UAE accused Iran of attacking a third ship operated by Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) that was crossing the strait on Friday, after blaming it for two other incidents involving ADNOC ships in the strait on Thursday evening.
The UK Maritime Trade Operations Center reported that a bulk carrier was hit in the hull by an unidentified projectile in the strait on Friday. It was not immediately clear whether he was referring to the same accident that occurred on the ADNOC ship.
The initial agreement reached in June to end the war is in tatters.
“We did not have a ceasefire in the first place and now we want to extend it,” Araqchi said. “The war is over, and now there is a new situation.”
Attacks by the Iranian-backed Houthis in Yemen have renewed concerns about the expanding scope of the regional war. The internationally recognized Yemeni government said that the Houthis fired six ballistic missiles at the port of Mokha on the Red Sea on Friday, killing four civilians.
– Prepared by Menna Alaa El-Din and Enas Al-Ashry in Cairo, Humeyra Pamuk in Garden City, New York, and Garrett Renshaw in Washington. – Prepared by Mohamed. Reporting by Menna Alaa El-Din and Enas Al-Ashry in Cairo, Humeyra Pamuk in Garden City, New York, and Garrett Renshaw in Washington. Writing by Daniel Trotta, William Mallard and Alex Richardson. Edited by Sergio Nunn, Cynthia Osterman, and Alexander Smith
