Iran Halts Talks With US, Threatens to Close Strait of Hormuz
Tehran says via Tasnim it is ending indirect contact with Washington and will fully close the Strait of Hormuz, with Brent crude jumping nearly 7 percent.
- Tehran said through the semi-official Tasnim agency that it is cutting off the indirect channel with Washington.
- It announced a full closure of the Strait of Hormuz and the activation of other fronts, including Bab el-Mandeb.
- Roughly a fifth of the world's oil passes through Hormuz, leaving the market acutely exposed.
- Brent crude jumped nearly 7 percent, to around 97 dollars a barrel.
Iran announced on Sunday, through the semi-official Tasnim agency, that it was ending the months-long exchange of messages with the United States that had been running through intermediaries, and that it was moving to steps Tehran says will reshape the arithmetic of the entire region. In the same statement it announced a full closure of the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow maritime bottleneck through which a fifth of the world’s traded oil passes every day. For Serbia, which imports fuel and refined products at prices set on the global market, this is not a distant story: any jump in the barrel reaches pumps in Belgrade and Novi Sad quickly.
The decision, according to Tehran, is a response to Israeli attacks in Lebanon and Gaza. Oil reacted almost instantly. Brent rose nearly 7 percent and reached around 97 dollars a barrel, the sharpest single-day gain in several years. The market sent a clear message: the threat to Hormuz is not a rhetorical exercise, but a variable that investors and governments now treat as real.
Why does the Strait of Hormuz matter so much?
Hormuz links the Persian Gulf to the Gulf of Oman and the open sea, and at its narrowest point it is only a few dozen kilometres wide. Oil from Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates and Iran itself passes through it. That is exactly why the mere announcement of a closure changes market behaviour before a single tanker has been stopped.
Tehran went a step further in its statement, signalling the activation of additional pressure points:
- a full closure of the Strait of Hormuz to maritime traffic;
- the activation of further fronts, including the Bab el-Mandeb strait at the southern end of the Red Sea;
- the suspension of all indirect communication with Washington.
Bab el-Mandeb is the second sensitive point, because it controls access to the Suez Canal, so simultaneous pressure on two straits would hit both oil and container traffic heading toward Europe.
Iran is suspending all indirect communication with the United States and moving to a full closure of the Strait of Hormuz, in response to the attacks in Lebanon and Gaza, the statement carried by the Tasnim agency said.
What this means for Europe and Serbia
The European outlook is unfavourable for a simple reason: the continent is entering a summer season of higher fuel consumption with a market that is already nervous. A higher barrel feeds through to diesel and petrol within a few weeks, and Serbia, as an importer that belongs to no oil cartel, takes the price the global market dictates. Domestic reserves and interventions can soften the blow, but they cannot cancel out a global trend.
The diplomatic channel that existed until now, even through intermediaries, is formally closed, which narrows the room for a quick de-escalation. While Washington has not issued a detailed response, the market has already answered, and European governments are watching closely to see whether Iran’s announcements will translate into real moves on the water or remain a pressure tool in talks that are, at least officially, broken off.
How much are you prepared to pay for a litre of fuel if tension over Hormuz lasts through the end of summer?
