Oil prices are back above $100 per barrel on Monday after 21 hours of ceasefire talks between the United States and Iran failed to end their war.
The U.S. military vowed to blockade all Iranian ports starting Monday, part of efforts to force Tehran into agreeing to open the crucial Strait of Hormuz and accepting a peace deal.
With the ceasefire in Iran still shaky, U.S. Vice President JD Vance headed Friday to Pakistan for high-level talks with Iranian officials, as Israel and Hezbollah militants traded fire and Tehran maintained its stranglehold on the Strait of Hormuz.
Vice President JD Vance on Friday warned Iran not to “play” the U.S. as he headed overseas for negotiations aimed at ending their war.
President Donald Trump’s threats to wipe out Iran, “a whole civilization,” ended the restraint that Democrats have mostly practiced when it comes to questions of removing him from office in his second term.
AAA says regular gas is averaging $4.16 a gallon.
The U.S. demanded Wednesday that Iran reopen the Strait of Hormuz after the Islamic Republic closed the waterway in response to Israeli attacks against the Hezbollah militant group in Lebanon.
Israeli strikes hit several dense commercial and residential areas in central Beirut without warning Wednesday afternoon, hours after a ceasefire was announced in the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran.
Iran, the United States and Israel agreed to a two-week ceasefire in an 11th-hour deal that headed off U.S. President Donald Trump’s threat to unleash a bombing campaign to destroy Iranian civilization. But hours after the announcement, Iran and Gulf Arab countries reported new attacks Wednesday.
President Donald Trump has pushed back a deadline for Iran to cut a deal or open the Strait of Hormuz from Monday to Tuesday, the latest of several deadline delays, and threatened that without a deal “Hell will reign down on them.”
