Crude oil prices surged on Monday after U.S. President Donald Trump rejected Iran’s latest peace proposal, describing it as “totally unacceptable.” This has reignited fears over the future of the Middle East conflict and possible disruptions to global oil supply.
Checks by Nairametrics show that Brent crude futures added $4.04 and now trade at $105.33 at the time of filing this report. For the West Texas Intermediate (WTI), it climbed by $4.43, or 4.64%.
Last week, both contracts recorded 6% weekly losses on hopes for an imminent end to the 10-week-old conflict that would allow oil transit through the Strait of Hormuz.
What they are saying
On Monday, May 10, Donald Trump, in a post on Truth Social, his social media platform, said that Iran’s counterproposal to a U.S. peace deal was “totally unacceptable.”
In an earlier post, Trump claimed that Iran had been playing games with not only the United States but the rest of the world. The President also added that Iran had been killing U.S. citizens for 47 years.
- “For 47 years, the Iranians have been ‘tapping’ us along, keeping us waiting, killing our people with their roadside bombs,” he wrote.
More insights
With the description of Iran’s deal as unacceptable, it remains unclear how the conflict in the Middle East would progress, or whether the U.S. would offer a counterproposal that could break the gridlock in the negotiations.
- Although the details of Iran’s counterproposal were not made public, The Wall Street Journal reported that Iran had offered to transfer some of its stockpile of highly enriched uranium to a third country while rejecting calls to dismantle its nuclear facilities.
Tasnim News Agency, Iran’s semi-official news agency, however, said Iranian authorities disputed the claim.
