Oil rises above $106 per barrel as U.S., Iran deadlocked in Strait of Hormuz

Apr 25, 2026 News

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(AL-JAZEERA) Brent stood at $106.80 as of 01:00 GMT, up nearly 5 percent from its closing price on Wednesday, when it surpassed $100 per barrel for the first time in two weeks.

US stocks fell overnight, with the benchmark S&P 500 index dipping 0.41 percent and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite dropping 0.89 percent.

Shipping in the Strait of Hormuz, which normally carries about one-fifth of the world’s supply of oil and natural gas, remains at a standstill as Iran continues to demand the right to decide which vessels may pass and the US blocks Iran’s maritime trade.

US President Donald Trump said in a Truth Social post on Thursday that he had ordered the US Navy to destroy any Iranian boats laying mines in the strait, shortly after the Pentagon announced that it had seized a tanker carrying sanctioned Iranian oil for the second time in less than a week.

Trump also appeared to expand the scope of the US naval blockade beyond Iranian ports, writing on Truth Social that no ship “can enter or leave” the strait without the approval of the US Navy.

“It is ‘Sealed up Tight,’ until such time as Iran is able to make a DEAL!!!” Trump said.

Trump’s threats came a day after Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps announced the capture of two foreign cargo ships in the waterway.

The IRGC said it had seized the Panamanian-flagged MSC Francesca and Greek-owned Epaminondas after the vessels had endangered maritime security “by operating without the necessary permits and tampering with navigation systems”.

The Greek Maritime Affairs and Insular Policy Ministry has denied that the Epaminondas was captured and said the vessel remains under the control of its captain.

Only nine commercial vessels transited the strait on Wednesday, compared with seven on Tuesday and 15 on Monday, according to maritime intelligence platform Windward.

Before the US and Israel launched their war against Iran on February 28, the waterway saw an average of 129 transits each day, according to United Nations Trade and Development.

Iranian FM Araghchi to visit Pakistan in step towards US talks resumption

Iranian Foreign Minister, Abbas Araghchi, is expected to fly into Pakistan’s capital on Friday night with a small delegation, in what officials said was a key step towards the resumption of direct talks with the United States aimed at ending their war.

Senior government officials in Islamabad confirmed the development to Al Jazeera, soon after a series of phone calls between Araghchi and Pakistani leaders on Friday.

For the moment, the Iranian state news agency IRNA said Araghchi’s visit to Pakistan was bilateral in nature — to speak with Pakistani officials, rather than for talks right away with the US. Araghchi, IRNA said, would travel to Moscow and Muscat after Islamabad.

Still, one Pakistani official said there was now a “high likelihood of a breakthrough” between the US and Iran, after days of escalating brinkmanship and rising tensions in the Strait of Hormuz.

A US delegation led by Vice President JD Vance was expected to arrive in Islamabad at the start of the week for talks, but Iran then said it was not prepared to return for talks, citing the naval blockade of its ports. Donald Trump enforced the blockade on April 13, two days after the first round of negotiations between the US and Iran in Islamabad ended inconclusively.

Since then, the prospects of further talks have been in limbo – with Iran insisting that the US needed to lift the blockade before it would return. Trump has so far refused to lift the blockade even after Araghchi said that Iran would reopen the strait, which it had effectively blocked for most ships since early March.

Against the backdrop of that standoff, tensions have soared in recent days in the strait, where the US first captured an Iranian-flagged ship, only for Iran to also capture two ships and fire at a third.

By the middle of the week, it was uncertain whether the second round of US-Iran talks would happen.

That dynamic changed on Friday morning.

Flurry of calls

Araghchi spoke by phone with Pakistan’s Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister, Ishaq Dar, on Friday morning.

Dar underscored the importance of sustained dialogue, while Araghchi appreciated Pakistan’s “consistent and constructive facilitation role”, according to Pakistan’s foreign ministry.

Iran’s state news agency, IRNA, reported a separate call between Araghchi and army chief, Field Marshal Asim Munir, though Pakistani authorities neither confirmed nor denied it.

So far, the US has not confirmed whether and when the Trump administration will send a delegation to meet Araghchi and his team, or who it will be. Vance was joined by Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff and his son-in-law Jared Kushner in the April 11 talks in Islamabad.

But Iran’s delegation in those talks was led by parliamentary speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, widely seen as closer to the influential Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) than Araghchi and Iran’s political leadership under President Masoud Pezeshkian.

Though talks initially planned for the start of the week were postponed, the US remains prepared to attend the second round of talks, say officials.

At least nine US aircraft have arrived in the city this week, carrying communications equipment, vehicles, security staff and technical personnel in preparation for the dialogue, whenever it happens.

It is unclear whether Iran’s apparent willingness to re-engage in talks is the result of economic pressure from the US naval blockade, which has stopped Iranian tankers from exporting to Asian economies, or the outcome of back-channel talks that have yielded a meaningful breakthrough.

Iran’s nuclear programme, US sanctions and the future of the Strait of Hormuz are key sticking points that in recent days have threatened to rupture Pakistan’s mediation efforts.

For the residents of Pakistan’s capital, the equation is simpler if frustrating: They want the talks to be over and done with as soon as possible, because of the disruption to their lives and the limbo over whether negotiations would be held or not.

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• Iran US war, oil per barrel, oil price, trait of Hormuz

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