Brent crude rises more than 7 percent as Washington and Tehran offer conflicting accounts on ceasefire negotiations.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Published On 20 Apr 2026<\/span>20 Apr 2026<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Oil prices have risen sharply following attacks on commercial vessels in the Strait of Hormuz and conflicting messages about the prospect of renewed negotiations between the United States and Iran.<\/p>\n Brent crude futures, the primary benchmark for global prices, jumped more than 7 percent in Asia on Monday as the outlook for peace between Washington and Tehran darkened.<\/p>\n list of 4 items<\/span>end of list<\/span><\/section>\n Prices eased somewhat later in the morning, with the benchmark at $94.69 a barrel as of 02:05 GMT, up from just under $90.40 on Friday.<\/p>\n The latest price surge came after US President Donald Trump said US forces seized an Iranian-flagged cargo vessel that had attempted to evade the US blockade of Iran\u2019s ports.<\/p>\n Trump\u2019s announcement followed reports by the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) Centre over the weekend that two vessels came under attack while transiting the strait.<\/p>\n Iranian gunboats fired on a tanker, while an \u201cunknown projectile\u201d struck a container ship, according to the UKMTO.<\/p>\n After declaring the strait \u201ccompletely open\u201d on Friday, Tehran\u00a0reversed course less than 24 hours later, citing the ongoing US blockade.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Earlier on Sunday, Trump said that a US delegation would travel to Pakistan on Monday to hold a second round of ceasefire talks with Iranian officials.<\/p>\n Iranian state news outlet IRNA later reported that Tehran would not participate in the talks, citing the US blockade and Washington\u2019s \u201cexcessive demands\u201d and \u201cunrealistic expectations\u201d.<\/p>\n A two-week ceasefire between Washington and Tehran is\u00a0set to expire on Wednesday if the sides cannot agree on an extension.<\/p>\n An initial round of talks held in Islamabad earlier this month broke down without any agreement between the sides.<\/p>\n Iran\u2019s effective closure of the strait, which usually carries about one-fifth of global oil and natural gas supplies, has driven a surge in fuel prices worldwide, forcing governments to tap emergency supplies and roll out energy-saving measures.<\/p>\n Nineteen vessels crossed the strait on Saturday, up from 10 the previous day, but far below the historical average of 138 daily transits, according to the UKMTO.<\/p>\n Asia\u2019s main stock markets opened higher on Monday despite the dimming prospects of de-escalation.<\/p>\n Japan\u2019s Nikkei 225 rose more than 1 percent in morning trading, while South Korea\u2019s KOSPI gained about 1.3 percent.<\/p>\n Hong Kong\u2019s Hang Seng Index rose about 0.5 percent, while the SSE Composite Index in Shanghai gained more than 0.4 percent.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Brent crude rises more than 7 percent as Washington and Tehran offer conflicting accounts on ceasefire negotiations. Published On 20 Apr 202620 Apr 2026 Oil prices have risen sharply following attacks on commercial vessels in the Strait of Hormuz and conflicting messages about the prospect of renewed negotiations between the United States and Iran. Brent […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":19595,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19594","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-middle-east-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19594","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=19594"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19594\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/19595"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=19594"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=19594"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=19594"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![](\"https:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/jp-1730786685-rotated.jpg?resize=96%2C96&quality=80)
<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\nRecommended Stories <\/h2>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"