Iran weekend news: OPEC+ continues the charade, negotiations appear stuck, Beirut hit
OPEC+ and OPEC continue to go through the motions with the quota meetings despite the Strait of Hormuz.
OPEC+ announced it will raise its quota by 188K bpd for July with another meeting to come on July 5 for August production. The thing is, there are 10-13 million barrels per day shut in right now as Hormuz remains largely blocked.
There is no end in sight to the blockade as the US is now talking about confiscating Iranian funds and giving them to Gulf countries to rebuild, rather than to Iran, which is one of its demands.
On Sunday, Trump said he will not unfreeze Iranian assets or lift any sanctions up front as part of any deal. He said that “if they behave, if they do a good job, we start talking" regarding assets. At the same time, Iran said it won’t include nuclear materials in any deal to open Hormuz and that will only be after the US turns over funds.
At the start of the weekend, both sides traded fire once again.
Another key Iranian deal is a ceasefire in Lebanon and that appears to be nowhere close. Iran pledged a powerful response is Israel struck Beirut and that’s exactly what happened on the weekend as the IDF struck Beirut’s southern suburbs with a wave of attacks. That prompted Iranian lawmaker Rezaei to say there will be a powerful response.
“I would like to see Lebanon experience a better life. I would like to
see a more surgical attack against Hezbollah. I think it should be more
surgical,” Trump said in an interview with NBC recorded on Friday and
broadcast on Sunday.
All of this should put a bid into the oil market on Monday. On Friday, WTI fell $2.79 to $90.54, which is near the lows since the conflict broke out.
This article was written by Adam Button at investinglive.com.