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Oil prices fell by more than 3% on Thursday after Donald Trump suggested that his administration was progressing in his indirect talks with Iran to conclude an agreement to slow down the Islamic Republic nuclear program.
Brent crude crude prices, the international index, slipped from $ 3.7% to $ 63.64 after the American president said Washington was in “serious negotiations” with Iran.
“We are in very serious negotiations with Iran for long -term peace”, ” Asset Said in Doha, the second stage of his Gulf tour, according to a report by the White House press pool. “We may get closer to an agreement.”
He gave no details to save his comments.
The West Texas Intermediate prices, the American reference index, exchanged 4.1% down $ 60.57 per barrel.
Trump’s comments occurred after his envoy Steve Witkoff had a fourth round of talks with the Iranian Minister of Foreign Affairs Abbas Araghchi Sunday before the president’s trip to the region.
The Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs has described negotiations as “difficult but useful”.
Experts claim that the conclusion of an acceptable agreement for both parties will be a long and very complex process given the deep levels of distrust between enemies and the scale of nuclear advances in Iran.
US officials have given mixed signals on what they demand from Iran, but in recent comments Witkoff reiterated that the Trump administration wanted the complete dismantling of the Tehran nuclear program.
He told Breitbart on Friday, an American right -wing website that Iran should dismantle its three main nuclear installations and warned that if the talks did not progress on Sunday, they would not continue and “we will have to take a different route”.
But it would be a red line for Tehran, who insists on the fact that as a signatory of the non-proliferation treaty, he has the right to enrich uranium at the national level.
While Trump has repeatedly declared that he wanted an agreement with Iran to resolve the crisis, he also threatened military action if diplomacy failed and repaired sanctions against Iran as part of his alleged maximum pressure campaign.
After the last series of talks in Oman, Araghchi said there will be no compromise on Iran’s law to enrich uranium.
He added that there was the “possibility that we accept certain limits concerning the dimensions, the quantity and the level [of enrichment] during a period to strengthen confidence ”.
“But the question of enrichment is not negotiable, as is the abolition of sanctions,” he said.
His comments stressed that Iran could be willing to accept an agreement similar to the 2015 agreement it signed with the United States and other global powers which seriously limited its nuclear activity in exchange for sanctions.
Under the terms of this agreement – which has taken more than two years to negotiate – Iran has not been authorized to enrich uranium greater than 3.67% and its enriched uranium stock was capped at 300 kg.
But after Trump unilaterally withdrawn the United States from the 2018 agreement and imposed waves of sanctions on the Republic, Iran increased its nuclear activity. For several years, it has enriched uranium up to 60% purity, which is close to the quality of weapons.
Trump used his tour of three gulf countries to rage against Iran and take the opening of the prospect of an agreement.
In a speech in Riyadh on Tuesday, he said that “the Arab states focused on the creation of regional stability and global stability, Iranian leaders focused on the flight of their people to finance terrorism and blood abroad”.
He also said: “If I can conclude an agreement with Iran, I will be very happy”.
“But if the leadership of Iran rejects this branch of olive tree … then we will have no choice but to inflict a massive maximum pressure, [and] Driver Iranian oil exports from scratch, “he added.
The Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs described Trump’s remarks as “deceptive and offensive” saying that they aimed to “provoke a division between Iran and its Arab neighbors”.
Iranian oil exports were on average 1.56 million barrels per day from January to May this year, making it the fourth largest exporter of Opep Oil Cartel, above Kuwait and Nigeria, according to the Vortexa energy data group.
Analysts fear that there is an increasing gap between the increase in oil production in OPEC countries, led by Saudi Arabia and low demand.
The International Energy Agency said Thursday that economic uncertainty would slow down global oil demand to 650,000 barrels per day for the rest of 2025, compared to almost 1 million barrels per day in the first quarter.
Additional Malcolm Moore reports in London
