The Brent crude oil price rose to $111.4 per barrel on Tuesday from $110 on Monday, despite ongoing peace talks between the United States and Iran, according to data from Oilprice.com.
On Tuesday, US Vice President JD Vance said the United States and Iran have made significant progress in their talks and that neither side wants to see a resumption of military action, Reuters reports.
President Donald Trump had on Monday halted a planned resumption of strikes in Iran following Tehran’s refusal to surrender and reopen the Strait of Hormuz, the closure of which is affecting global fuel availability.
“We think that we’ve made a lot of progress. We think the Iranians want to make a deal,” Vance told reporters at a White House briefing.
Vance said he had just spoken to Trump, who stressed that the core issue for the US is that Iran can never have a nuclear weapon.
He said that if Iran acquires such capability, countries around the Gulf would seek their own weapons, and other countries globally could follow.
“We want to keep the number of countries that have nuclear weapons small, and that’s why Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon,” he said.
The United States wants Iran to work with Washington on a process to ensure that Tehran does not rebuild its nuclear weapons capacity in the years to come.
“That’s what we’re trying to accomplish in negotiations,” he said.
However, Trump is said to be under pressure to reach an accord that would reopen the Strait of Hormuz, a key route for global supplies of oil and other commodities.
Trump had previously expressed hope that a deal was close to ending the conflict and had similarly threatened to renew military strikes on Iran if it did not reach an accord.
