Crude oil prices spike over 2%, with Brent Crude prices trading past 93 dollars a barrel and WTI Crude nearly 90 dollars a barrel after Israel has reportedly asked troops to push deeper into Lebanon and concerns on more clashes have resurfaced.
The Israel-Lebanon conflict has been viewed as the broadest and biggest spillover impact of the Iran war along with the uncertainty of the oil and energy landscape. US President Donald Trump had last week stated that he will decide on a proposed deal to extend a ceasefire with Iran soon. Experts believe negotiatons are being given more time to seek a permanent end to the conflict and find a solution to the underlying dispute over Iran’s nuclear program. While Israel’s stance will be key to any such deal, Iran has also said that Hezbollah must be included and continues to believe so.
US President Donald Trump has strongly hit out at media reports casting doubt on the nuclear parameters of his envisioned pact with Iran, asserting that the framework unequivocally prohibits Tehran from acquiring a nuclear capability. Taking to his social media platform, Truth Social, Trump dismissed critical coverage concerning the scope of the potential accord. “Fake News CNN said today, routinely, that my Iran Nuclear Deal doesn’t talk about Nuclear, when actually it states, very clearly, that Iran will not have a Nuclear Weapon,” Trump wrote. Defending the robustness of the draft framework, Trump maintained that the text addresses proliferation risks comprehensively rather than superficially. Trump also stated that the agreement “goes on, in very strong and lengthy detail, to discuss various other aspects of Nuclear” and claimed, “in fact, that’s what most of the agreement is about.” This comes days after he had declared a proposed agreement with Tehran “largely finalised”. However, Trump has returned the draft text for extensive modifications since then.