Brent crude rises above $90 a barrel for the first time since 30 July after US president tells Tehran to surrender<\/p>\n
Oil prices have risen again after the two-month window to negotiate a peace deal in the US-Israel war on Iran expired on Monday with no end to the conflict in sight.<\/p>\n
Iran said on Monday that it would take a more aggressive stance if talks with the US failed, while Donald Trump demanded Tehran \u201cput up the white flag of surrender\u201d in an interview with Fox News.<\/p>\n
Trump also threatened to bomb Oman if it \u201cgets in the way\u201d of his effort to end the war, the second time he has directed such a threat at the longtime US strategic partner. \u201cIf Oman gets in the way, we\u2019ll bomb the shit out of them,\u201d Trump told Fox News on Monday.<\/p>\n
Brent crude rose above $90 a barrel for the first time since 30 July, and was trading at $91.63 on Tuesday morning.<\/p>\n
Angeline Ong, a senior technical analyst at the investing and trading platform IG, said: \u201cTrump\u2019s threat to bomb Oman could be the moment the oil market shifts from pricing a temporary disruption to pricing a prolonged one.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf Muscat pulls back from talks with Tehran, the diplomatic route to restoring normal flows through Hormuz narrows considerably. That would be a signal to add to energy longs rather than fade the rally \u2013 with roughly a quarter of global seaborne oil normally passing through the strait, even a small reduction in the probability of reopening warrants a higher geopolitical premium in crude.\u201d<\/p>\n
A cargo ship was attacked while travelling through the strait early on Tuesday, according to the UK Maritime Trade Operations agency, after an Iranian official told Reuters that it would shift to a \u201cfully offensive\u201d military stance.<\/p>\n
Fox News reported on Tuesday that the Iranian military spokesperson Ebrahim Zolfaghari said vessels attempting to pass through the strait would \u201cfind several beautiful holes in their hulls\u201d.<\/p>\n
Just six commodity ships travelled through the waterway on Monday, according to Kpler, a ship tracking company. That was slightly up compared with the weekend, when five ships transited on Saturday and Sunday combined.<\/p>\n
Analysts at Deutsche Bank wrote on Tuesday that the rising oil prices were a sign of investors pricing in \u201ca more extended closure\u201d of the strait.<\/p>\n
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Trump made the threat against Oman as he struggles to draw the conflict to a close almost six months after it began. But the US president also claimed during Monday\u2019s interview that he was \u201cnot in a hurry\u201d to reach a deal.<\/p>\n
He has repeatedly claimed the war would end \u201csoon\u201d, and talked up the prospect of a lasting peace deal in recent months, without such a breakthrough materialising. Trump said he would not impose a fresh deadline on Iran, adding: \u201cI have no time schedule. I\u2019m not in a hurry.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dan Alamariu, the chief geopolitical strategist at the research company Alpine Macro, warned that if there was no end to the fighting in the Middle East, energy prices could see a \u201cdouble whammy\u201d from that combined with Russia\u2019s ongoing war in Ukraine.<\/p>\n