Oil starts the week on the rise again, with both reference barrels trading with increases of more than 2%. In fact, Brent is around $108 while the second round of peace negotiations between the US and Iran appears to be stalling. Notably, this comes after last week both Brent and West Texas posted the biggest weekly gains since the start of the war. Stalled peace talks mean further disruption to Middle East energy exports, while shipments through the Strait of Hormuz remain limited. In this sense, Iran has offered a new proposal to the US to reopen the passage and end the war. Furthermore, hopes of reviving peace efforts were dashed over the weekend when US President Donald Trump canceled a planned trip to Islamabad by his envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, just as Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi arrived in Pakistan. «Too much time wasted traveling, too much work! Plus, there is tremendous infighting and confusion within their ‘leadership’. No one knows who is in charge, not even them. Plus, we have everything to win; they don’t have any! If they want to talk, they just have to call!» he posted on his social network. For his part, the spokesman for the Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Esmaeil Baqaei, has assured on social networks that «no meeting between Iran and the US is planned.» —expanding—
