United States President Donald tTrump had on Friday urged Americans to accept slightly higher gasoline prices as the US-Iran conflict continues.
At a political rally in Garden City, New York, Trump said that paying “a tiny little bit more for your gasoline” would be worth the cost of ensuring “a very evil country” could not have nuclear weapons.
The crisis over the waterway, critical to crude oil and natural gas shipping, deepened even as Iran said it “will be opened and closed only under” its command. “…So long as you do not accept the reality of defeat and stop indulging in fantasies, Iran will continue to enforce the blockade,” Iran’s deputy foreign minister Kazem Gharibabadi said on X. Meanwhile, Iranian foreign minister Abbas Araghchi said Iran had not decided to resume talks with the US. He told Iranian news outlet Shahrara News in an interview published Saturday that US must meet conditions on the strait in order for shipping traffic to resume on the waterway.
Despite its defiant tone, Iran too is facing the economic toll of the conflict. Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, in remarks on state television, blamed high inflation on a US blockade of the country’s ports and sanctions on Iran’s oil exports. The stalled talks has sparked inflation and disappointed voters in the US, Reuters reported, with the average price of a gallon of gasoline at $4.08 on Friday, up 29% from a year earlier, according to the American Automobile Association. Crude oil futures rose $1 a barrel on Friday. Benchmark Brent futures were on track for a weekly rise of 6.0% and West Texas Intermediate 5.4%.
