Oil prices began to climb once again in early Asian trade on Friday due to uncertainty over the outcome of peace talks between the United States and Iran after Switzerland confirmed the talks had been postponed.
At the time of writing, Brent crude had climbed back above $80 per barrel while West Texas Intermediate had risen to $76.28.
Reuters reported on the statement, issued by the Swiss foreign ministry, without providing details. The statement followed earlier reports that said Vice President J.D. Vance, who had been scheduled to attend the talks, had canceled his trip. Reports did not specify the reason for the cancellation, although the IDF has confirmed striking southern Lebanon throughout the night.
Separate reports cited the U.S. Vice President as warning Israel not to criticize Trump’s deal with Iran and not to try to undermine it or risk having the U.S. pull its military support for Tel Aviv. Iran’s agreement to the peace deal is contingent on Israel stopping its war in Lebanon, which Israel has indicated it has no plans to do.
“Donald J. Trump is the only head of state in the entire world who is sympathetic to the nation of Israel at this moment in time, and he happens to be the head of state of the world’s superpower. If I was in the cabinet of the Israeli government, I might not be attacking the only powerful ally that I have anywhere left in the entire world,” Axios cited Vance as saying.
On Telegram, the IDF confirmed that it “struck southern Lebanon throughout the night and continues to strike Hezbollah terrorists and infrastructure sites in several areas across southern Lebanon.” It claims that those strikes were in retaliation for “repeated violations of the ceasefire” by Hezbollah.
Prior to this latest escalation, oil prices had been falling throughout the week, dropping below $80 per barrel as traders assumed the ceasefire agreement would allow oil to start flowing more freely out of the Persian Gulf.
Reports about tankers lining up to exit and others coming in to load helped reinforce this perception. It seems apparent, however, that normalization of oil flows from the Middle East will take a while yet.
By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com
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