Oil Rises As Hopes For a Deal To End The War In Iran Fade

Oil is rising on Monday as hopes for a deal to end the war in Iran fade following Tehran’s latest response to the U.S. proposal and President Donald Trump’s description of it as “unacceptable.”

Concretely, Brent crude, the international benchmark, rose 2.05% at 10:19 a.m. on Monday, clocking inat $103.3, while West Texas Intermediate, the U.S. benchmark, did so by 1.57% at the same time, hovering around $97.

The development comes as the ceasefire appears to be under increased strain after Trump said during the weekend that he had “just read the response from Iran’s so-called ‘Representatives'” and didn’t “like it.”

Speaking to Axios later that day, Trump said the response was “inappropriate” and the regime has been “tapping along many nations for 47 years.”

Iranian media claimed that Tehran’s response sought to end the war and ensure guarantees that it wouldn’t resume.

Tasnim news, which is affiliated with the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said the response “stresses the necessity of lifting U.S. sanctions, ending the war on all fronts” and guarantee the country’s control of the Strait of Hormuz.

The country demanded an immediate end to the U.S.’s blockade upon the signing of the memorandum of understanding. Such a development would be followed by 30 days on negotiations focused on lifting sanctions on the country and unfreezing its assets.

Iranian media didn’t specify whether the country was willing to make any concessions related to its nuclear program. A regime source told the outlet that Trump’s dismissal of its response “has no importance.”

No one in Tehran “writes proposals to please Trump,” the source added. “The negotiating team should draft proposals only for the rights of the Iranian people, and when Trump is dissatisfied with them, naturally that is better.”

Elsewhere in the interview, Trump told Axios he had spoken with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu about Iran’s response.

Netanyahu, on his end, said on Sunday that the war is “not over.” “There’s still nuclear material, enriched uranium that has to be taken out of Iran,” he told CBS News’ “60 Minutes.”

“There is still enrichment sites that have to be dismantled, there’s still proxies that Iran supports, there are ballistic missiles that they still want to produce,” Netanyahu added. Asked how Iran’s enriched uranium would be removed from the country, he said “you go in, and you take it out.”