Fresh tanker mine strike in Hormuz pushes oil back up

Another tanker struck a naval mine in the Strait of Hormuz on Wednesday, sending crude oil back up after two days of declines that followed Trump's statement that new attacks on Iran were highly unlikely. The British military confirmed an incident involving a tanker in transit; UKMTO did not identify the vessel. Iran's state media said the ship was travelling an unauthorized route.

The attacks now come so frequently that international maritime monitors are struggling to keep up with the data. Each strike reprices the same barrels: the market is now quoting presidential mood and unclaimed mines in the same breath, and Brent's four-percent fall earlier this week has largely evaporated.

On the war's central question, Tehran's answer to Washington is categorical. Mohsen Rezaei, secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, told Lebanon's Al Mayadeen that Iran would not remove a single atom of enriched nuclear material from its soil — rejecting the transfer of Iran's 60 percent stockpile to a third country, an overture Russia had itself offered to receive and store. He spoke after meeting Putin last week, as Moscow steps up its diplomatic involvement in the crisis.

The refusal is not obstinacy so much as the regime's ledger of recent history: a nuclear program is the one card that guarantees continued relevance at the table, and the last leader who surrendered his — Gaddafi — ended the arrangement with a bayonet. A blockade can strangle oil revenue, but it cannot make a government trade away the thing keeping it alive.

Rezaei also dismissed as pure lies the Gulf-sourced reports of talks between Tehran and Washington, including an alleged recent meeting in Qatar, which he said were fake news meant to drive down oil prices. Reports continue to circulate of a potential meeting between Rezaei and US Vice President JD Vance. According to Al Jazeera, Iran has not ruled out diluting its uranium to a lower enrichment level under international supervision — but it has released its terms first: no nuclear discussion until the war ends on all fronts, the US naval blockade lifts, frozen assets are released, sanctions from the Islamabad Agreement are removed, US forces withdraw from the surrounding geography, Iranian oil sales are exempted from sanctions, and the maritime corridor agreed with Oman is recognized.

Rezaei said Iran would not negotiate the nuclear file until all seven conditions are met. The war is in its ninth month, and the tankers keep hitting mines.