(RTTNews) – Oil prices held steady on Friday but headed for their fourth straight weekly loss on eased concerns over supply disruptions in the Middle East.
Brent crude futures were 0.4 percent higher at $72.11 a barrel, hovering near levels last seen before the Middle East conflict in late February on signs of improved shipping activity through the Strait of Hormuz and progress in U.S.-Iran talks. WTI crude futures edged up by 0.2 percent to $68.84.
U.S. President Donald Trump said in an interview with CNBC that talks with Iran are moving forward and that Tehran has agreed to “just about everything we need.”
Trump claimed that Iran will buy U.S. agricultural products as part of a potential peace agreement to end the war – a statement that Iran has refuted.
Meanwhile, Iran’s main military command, Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters said that the Strait of Hormuz is not the “aggressive U.S. playground” and that any U.S. interference in the vital waterway will be met with a “decisive and swift” response.
Separately, Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghci slammed the U.S. CENTCOM’s regional security dialogue in Bahrain, which saw participation from 12 countries.
Questioning the U.S. role in the region, he said lasting peace in West Asia could only be achieved without outside interference and claimed, “outsiders cannot even protect themselves.”
Elsewhere, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said his country would “definitely” retaliate after Russian forces launched a major drone and missile attack on Kyiv overnight, killing at least 30 people.
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