Oil prices increase after Iran doubles down on Strait of Hormuz closure

Apr 27, 2026 News

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…says U.S. undermined trust

(CNN) Oil prices rose Sunday after an Iranian official warned that the Strait of Hormuz will “under no circumstances” return to its previous state.

Brent crude, the international benchmark, was up about 2.14% to $107.58. US crude was up 2.08% to $96.36.

Iran’s Deputy Parliament Speaker Ali Nikzad has warned the choked Strait of Hormuz will “under no circumstances” return to its previous state, citing an order from the country’s Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei, Iranian semi-official media said on Sunday.

“We will under no circumstances return the Strait of Hormuz to its previous state, because this is an order from the Leader of the Revolution,” Mehr News Agency cited Nikzad as saying, referring to an order from Khamenei, who has still not been seen or heard in public since he was announced as leader.

Nikzad said it was “one of the divine blessings of the war that we realized if we place our foot on the throat of the Strait of Hormuz and Bab al-Mandab, 25% of the world’s economy would be affected.”

Like the Strait of Hormuz, the Bab al-Mandab is another critical shipping chokepoint between Yemen and Africa.

In Khamenei’s first purported message as supreme leader earlier this year, he rattled global markets by doubling down on keeping closed the strait, which has become a key focal point of the US-Israeli war with Iran.

Iran’s president Masoud Pezeshkian told Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif that ongoing US actions were undermining trust and complicating paths to dialogue, according to Iran’s state broadcaster. The accusations come a week after Iran accused the United States of “breaches of trust” and once again closed the Strait of Hormuz.

Meanwhile, President Donald Trump canceled the US envoy to Islamabad at the last minute on Saturday after Iran refused to hold direct talks. Trump partially blamed the cancellation on “infighting” among Tehran’s leaders.

Peace talks have stalled ahead of the war’s two-month mark, prolonging oil disruptions and stoking higher gas prices around the world.

A gallon of gas cost an average of $4.10 on Sunday, according to AAA data. While that’s down from a recent peak, prices are up about 27% since the start of the war.

US military officials are developing new plans to target Iran’s capabilities in the Strait of Hormuz in the event the current ceasefire with Iran falls apart, according to multiple sources familiar with the matter.

The options, among several sets of target types under consideration, include strikes with a particular focus on “dynamic targeting” of Iran’s capabilities around the Strait of Hormuz, southern Arabian Gulf and Gulf of Oman, the sources said, describing potential attacks against small fast attack boats, minelaying vessels and other asymmetric assets that have helped Tehran effectively shut down those key waterways and use them as leverage over the US.

That shut down has caused massive ripples in the global economy, threatening to undermine President Donald Trump’s efforts to reduce US inflation and has occurred despite a ceasefire pausing US strikes that began on April 7.

While the military has targeted Iran’s Navy, much of the first month of bombing was focused on targets away from the strait that would allow the US military to strike further inside Iran itself. The new plans call for a much more concentrated bombing campaign around strategic waterways.

CNN has previously reported that a large percentage of the country’s coastal defense missiles remain intact. Iran also has numerous small boats that could be used as platforms to launch attacks on ships, complicating US efforts to open the strait.

Military strikes around the strait, on their own, are unlikely to immediately re-open the waterway, multiple sources, including a senior shipping broker, told CNN.

“Unless you can unequivocally prove that 100% of Iran’s military capability is destroyed or near certainty that the US can mitigate the risk with our capability, it will come down to how badly is [Trump] willing to accept the risk and start pushing ships through the strait,” one source familiar with the military planning said.

The US military could also follow through on Trump’s previous threat to strike dual-use and infrastructure targets, including energy facilities, in an effort to compel Iran to the negotiating table, the sources told CNN. Trump has said the US would resume combat operations in the absence of a diplomatic resolution to the war.

Striking infrastructure targets would represent a controversial escalation in the conflict, some current and former US officials have warned.

Another option developed by military planners is to target individual Iranian military leaders and other “obstructionists” within the regime who US officials have recently suggested are actively undermining negotiations, one of the sources noted. That includes Ahmad Vahidi, who serves as Commander-in-Chief of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, the source said.

“Due to operations security, we do not discuss future or hypothetical movements,” a Defense Department official said when asked about target planning. “The U.S. military continues to provide the President options, and all options remain on the table.”

Trump has repeatedly claimed that the Iranian regime is “fractured” after joint US-Israeli operations killed a number of high-ranking officials, including the country’s supreme leader. In a social media post on Thursday, Trump pointed to an apparent split between the IRGC and members of the government who had been engaged in talks with the US as one challenge standing in the way of a diplomatic agreement.

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• Brent crude, Iran war, Mojtaba Khamenei, Oil prices, Strait of Hormuz

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