Oman oil hits $100 as global prices soars after Trump demand on Iran

MUSCAT/LONDON: Oman crude oil surpassed the $100-per-barrel mark on Friday, reaching $100.31 for May delivery compared with Thursday's price of $94.47 per barrel.
The price of the international benchmark soared more than 10 per cent on Friday on fears of extended disruption to crude supplies after President Donald Trump demanded Iran's 'unconditional surrender'.
West Texas Intermediate surged 10.63 per cent to $89.62 per barrel, while international benchmark Brent North Sea crude reached $91.89, the highest level since April 2024 after Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform, 'There will be no deal with Iran except UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER'.
The post came as Israel bombarded regime targets in Tehran and Hezbollah positions in Beirut and Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth said US strikes against Iran were 'about to surge dramatically'.
Trump said that following any capitulation by the Islamic Republic, the United States and its allies would work to bring Iran 'back from the brink of destruction, making it economically bigger, better and stronger than ever before'.
This would be contingent on the installation of what he called 'a GREAT & ACCEPTABLE Leader(s)'.
He closed with a new slogan — 'MAKE IRAN GREAT AGAIN (MIGA!)' — a riff on his 'Make America Great Again' political brand.
On the ground, Israel pursued a major expansion of the war in Lebanon, pounding the capital Beirut on Friday after ordering an unprecedented evacuation of the entire southern suburbs of the city.
It also launched a new wave of attacks on Iran, saying 50 of its warplanes had struck a bunker still being used by Iran's leadership ‌beneath Khamenei's destroyed Tehran compound.
Iran's President Masoud Pezeshkian posted on X: 'Some countries have begun mediation efforts'. He did ​not identify the countries or provide further details.
'Let's be ⁠clear: we are committed to lasting peace in the region, but we have not the slightest hesitation in defending the dignity and authority of our country. Mediation ​should address those who underestimated the Iranian people and ignited this conflict', he ‌added.
In insisting on ‌the right ⁠to help choose Iran's next leader, Trump made his most explicit demand for control over a country of more than 90 million people.
At least 1,230 people have been killed ​in Iran since the US and Israel launched strikes on February 28, according to the Iranian Red Crescent Society. The Lebanese health ministry has reported 123 people killed and 683 wounded ​as a result of Israeli attacks. At least 10 Israelis have been killed by Iranian attacks.
Two US officials said that military investigators believed it was likely that US forces were responsible for an apparent strike on an Iranian girls' school that killed scores of children on the first day of the war. The investigators have not yet reached a final conclusion.
Drones hit an airport and oil facilities in southern Iraq on Friday, while in the north strikes and explosions mainly targeted Iranian militants.
In Iraq's southern Basra province, 'a drone crashed into the cargo terminal at Basra airport', a security official said.
Two others hit a US company in the Burjesia oil complex and a fourth struck the Rumaila oil field, where energy major BP operates, the official added, without being able to identify the perpetrators.
Iraq, long a proxy battleground between the US and Iran, has said it did not want to be dragged into the war engulfing the Middle East. But it has not been spared. — ONA, Reuters/AFP