BANGKOK: Oil prices jumped Monday in Asia trading after U.S. President Donald Trump rejected an Iranian peace proposal aimed at ending the Middle East conflict and reopening the Strait of Hormuz.
U.S. crude futures for November delivery rose 1.69% to $94.10 a barrel, while international benchmark Brent gained 2.65% to $106.96 a barrel.
Trump turned down Iran’s conditional offer to reopen the Strait of Hormuz and told aides he expects U.S. strikes on the country to resume after November’s midterm elections, The Wall Street Journal reported Saturday, citing unnamed U.S. officials.
Trump later confirmed to reporters that he had rejected Tehran’s latest proposal.
“They made a proposal but I rejected it,” he said.
Separately, Yemen’s Saudi-led coalition said Saturday it had intercepted projectiles launched by Iran-backed Houthi rebels.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi on Friday offered to reopen the key shipping route and restart nuclear negotiations with Washington within seven days if the Trump administration agreed to Tehran’s conditions.
“If certain conditions are met, the Strait of Hormuz will be open at the end of seven days, and talks will be restarted,” Araghchi told reporters on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York.
Those conditions include an end to what Tehran describes as U.S. “acts of aggression,” the lifting of the naval blockade and economic warfare, and the release of Iranian assets, according to Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei.
Trump said earlier this month that he expected the conflict, which began with U.S. and Israeli airstrikes on Iran on Feb. 28, to conclude soon after the midterm elections, with oil prices subsequently declining.
