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Oil Prices Climb as US-Iran Standoff Escalates
(MENAFN) Crude prices pushed higher at the start of the trading week as tensions between the United States and Iran flared anew, rattling energy markets already on edge over the Strait of Hormuz.
By 0700 GMT Monday, Brent crude had climbed past $97 per barrel, marking a roughly 0.8% gain from Friday's close. West Texas Intermediate followed suit, rising 0.6% to reach $92 per barrel.
The price surge came after Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) announced early Monday that it had carried out a drone strike destroying a US military tethered surveillance aerostat near Erbil airport in northern Iraq.
Adding to the pressure, Mohsen Rezaei, secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, said Monday that Tehran plans to declare a new "restricted" maritime zone just outside the Strait of Hormuz within days. He warned that any vessel entering the zone would be added to a sanctions list.
Tensions also flared at sea further south. Yemeni Coast Guard forces boarded and seized an oil tanker on Sunday after it discharged what government media described as "unauthorized" cargo at the Houthi-controlled Ras Isa port in Al-Hudaydah governorate.
The latest flashpoints undercut a fragile diplomatic framework reached in June, when Iran and the United States signed a memorandum of understanding — brokered by Pakistan and Qatar — laying out steps toward de-escalation, reopening the Strait of Hormuz, and easing economic restrictions.
Since then, both sides have traded blame over failures to uphold that agreement, with military friction persisting alongside unresolved disputes over sanctions enforcement and freedom of navigation through the strait.
By 0700 GMT Monday, Brent crude had climbed past $97 per barrel, marking a roughly 0.8% gain from Friday's close. West Texas Intermediate followed suit, rising 0.6% to reach $92 per barrel.
The price surge came after Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) announced early Monday that it had carried out a drone strike destroying a US military tethered surveillance aerostat near Erbil airport in northern Iraq.
Adding to the pressure, Mohsen Rezaei, secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, said Monday that Tehran plans to declare a new "restricted" maritime zone just outside the Strait of Hormuz within days. He warned that any vessel entering the zone would be added to a sanctions list.
Tensions also flared at sea further south. Yemeni Coast Guard forces boarded and seized an oil tanker on Sunday after it discharged what government media described as "unauthorized" cargo at the Houthi-controlled Ras Isa port in Al-Hudaydah governorate.
The latest flashpoints undercut a fragile diplomatic framework reached in June, when Iran and the United States signed a memorandum of understanding — brokered by Pakistan and Qatar — laying out steps toward de-escalation, reopening the Strait of Hormuz, and easing economic restrictions.
Since then, both sides have traded blame over failures to uphold that agreement, with military friction persisting alongside unresolved disputes over sanctions enforcement and freedom of navigation through the strait.
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