US President Donald Trump yesterday said that Iran wanted to reach a deal with Washington, signalling a possible diplomatic opening as fighting across the Middle East widened and threatened global oil supplies.
“The failing nation of Iran wants to make a deal, quickly and badly. I will determine whether or not the USA will choose to engage – The concept of which we are open to,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
He made his comments came after Gulf states postponed a planned meeting with Iran and a new attack by Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthis highlighted fears of the conflict spreading further across the region.
Underscoring the volatility of shipping through the region, Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps said a Panamanian-flagged oil tanker exploded and caught fire after colliding with mines upon passing through what it called a prohibited zone south of the Strait of Hormuz, Iran’s Fars news agency reported without saying when the incident occurred.
But the US military’s Central Command immediately said the report was false and the tanker was ‘struck by an Iranian missile last month and rendered inoperable’.
The world’s most important oil shipping lane has been mostly shut down since the war began on February 28 as Iran has threatened vessels that transit the waterway without its authority.
The tanker, which the IRGC identified as El Gaia, had been on a list of 77 ships that Iran said had violated its operating protocols in Hormuz, warning that they could face fines, detention or confiscation on future transits.
US Energy Secretary Chris Wright said the average number of ships crossing the strait covertly with US support was increasing. But independent monitors have suggested oil flows could have dropped off this month since fighting intensified again after a quiet August.
- Molavi Yusef Gorgij, a senior cleric, was shot dead by unidentified gunmen in southeastern Iran yesterday, the official news agency Irna reported. It quoted a local governor as saying Gorgij ‘was active in the fight against divisive elements and Zionism’, a description suggesting the cleric was pro-government.
&uuid=(email))