Iran defies US blockade as oil prices soar

Sayyid Badr bin Hamad al Busaidy, Foreign Minister, on Thursday received Jean-Noël Barrot, French Republic’s Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs. The meeting took place at the General Diwan of the Foreign Ministry in Muscat.
During the meeting, Sayyid Badr and Jean-Noël Barrot discussed bilateral relations between the Sultanate of Oman and the French Republic. They stressed the need to maintain the momentum of steady growth of bilateral relations in different fields.
The two ministers also exchanged views about various regional and international issues, as well as the GCC-French relations. They laid emphasis on intensifying consultation and joint action to deal with current challenges.
In addition, the two sides discussed ways to consolidate world supply chains, ease shipping across the Strait of Hormuz and remove the current obstacles in a manner that contributes to the resumption of international trade and supports the stability of the global economy.
Meanwhile, Iran's supreme leader declared that the United States had suffered a defeat, defiantly rejecting a warning from President Donald Trump that an economically-punishing US naval blockade could be enforced for months to come.
Oil prices hit a four-year high then fell back slightly, before Mojtaba Khamenei issued a written statement that was read out on state television declaring that Iran was now in the driver's seat in the crisis.
'Today, two months after the largest military deployment and aggression by the world's bullies in the region, a new chapter is unfolding for the Arabian Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz,' he said, hailing Iran's control over shipping in the strait.
Khamenei was wounded in the initial US-Israeli strikes that killed his father Ali Khamenei, and has not been seen in public since being named his successor as supreme leader on March 9.
The United States imposed a blockade on Iran's ports two weeks ago, while the Islamic republic has maintained its stranglehold over the strategic Strait of Hormuz since the start of the Middle East war in February.
'Any attempt to impose a maritime blockade or restrictions is contrary to international law... and is doomed to fail,' Iran's President Masoud Pezeshkian said, in a statement that warned the blockade that began on April 13 would be 'a disruption to lasting stability in the Arabian Gulf'.
ECONOMIC IMPACT
UN Chief Antonio Guterres sounded the alarm on Thursday over the worsening global economic impacts of the Strait of Hormuz remaining effectively closed due to the Iran war.
The closure of the vital waterway is 'strangling the global economy,' the secretary-general warned in remarks to press.
Even if restrictions were lifted today, 'supply chains will take months to recover, prolonging lower economic output and higher prices,' he said. - Agencies