HONG KONG – Oil prices fell yesterday while stocks rose on lingering hopes for a deal to end the US-Iran war and reopen the Strait of Hormuz, even as Tehran said it had not decided whether to attend peace talks. 

With the end of a two-week ceasefire approaching, the White House said Vice President JD Vance was ready to return to Pakistan for fresh negotiations to end a conflict that has sent crude soaring and revived inflation fears.

However, the Islamic Republic’s position remained uncertain as it accused Washington of violating its fragile truce through its blockade of the country’s ports and seizure of a ship.

Crude plunged Friday after Tehran said it would allow ships to transit the Strait of Hormuz, which had been effectively closed since the war began on 28 February.

But the commodity rebounded on Monday as Iran closed the waterway again, citing the blockade and seizure.

Donald Trump has similarly accused Tehran of violating the ceasefire by harassing vessels in the Strait of Hormuz, the transit passage for about one-fifth of global oil.

The US president said the blockade would not be lifted until an agreement had been reached.

“The blockade, which we will not take off until there is a ‘deal’ is absolutely destroying Iran,” Trump said on social media. 

“They are losing US$500 Million Dollars a day, an unsustainable number, even in the short run.”

He told PBS News that Iran was “supposed to be there” at the talks in Pakistan.

“We agreed to be there,” he said, warning that if the ceasefire expired, “then lots of bombs start going off”.

He separately told Bloomberg News it was “highly unlikely” he would extend the truce.

Based on its start time, the truce theoretically expires overnight on Tuesday, Iran time, although in his comments to Bloomberg, Trump said the end was Wednesday evening Washington time.

The Middle Eastern country’s parliament speaker, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, said: “Trump wants to turn this negotiating table into a surrender table or justify renewed hostilities, as he sees fit”.

“We do not accept negotiations under the shadow of threats, and in the last two weeks we have been preparing to show new cards on the battlefield,” he wrote on X.

Still, investors remained largely upbeat that the two sides will eventually reach a deal to reopen the strategic strait.

US benchmark crude, West Texas Intermediate, and Brent both fell more than 1% yesterday. 

– Nampa/AFP