US president Donald Trump said today he has ordered a five-day halt to planned military strikes on Iranian power plants and energy infrastructure, saying Washington and Tehran have held "very good and productive" conversations aimed at ending the war.
In a Truth Social post, Trump said the two sides had engaged in "in-depth, detailed and constructive" discussions over the past two days on achieving a "complete and total resolution of our hostilities in the Middle East". He said further meetings would continue this week and that the pause in military action was conditional on the "success of the ongoing meetings and discussions".
Front-month Ice Brent crude fell to as low as $96/bl in intra-day trading, down from the settlement price of $112.19/bl on 20 March. It is now trending at around $103/bl.
European gas prices also tumbled in response to the post. The front-month contract at the benchmark TTF gas hub dropped by 17pc in the space of eight minutes, to just over €54/MWh at 11:10 GMT from €62/MWh just after 11:00 GMT. The price had climbed back up to €59/MWh by 11:22 GMT.
Trump's announcement marks a sharp shift from his weekend ultimatum demanding Iran fully reopen the strait of Hormuz within 48 hours or face immediate strikes on its power infrastructure. Iran responded by threatening to destroy oil facilities and other critical infrastructure across the Middle East "in an irreversible manner" if the US attacks its power plants.
Traffic through the Hormuz strait has been heavily restricted since major US-Israeli strikes on 28 February triggered Iranian retaliatory attacks on ships and energy infrastructure across the Mideast Gulf, severely disrupting exports of crude, oil products, LNG, fertilizers and other commodities from the region.
Earlier today, Iran's Defence Council warned that any attack on its coasts or islands would prompt it to lay naval mines across the Gulf, putting the wider region in a position similar to the strait of Hormuz "for a long time", according to state media. Tehran has also said the strait would only be open to vessels from "non-belligerent" countries co-ordinating passage with Iran.
Foreign minister Abbas Araqchi said over the weekend that Iran was willing to discuss safe passage through Hormuz with Japan and other states that had not attacked Iran.
