Brent crude oil futures climbed 2.5% Tuesday morning to near $90 per barrel before pulling back, as mixed signals emerged from diplomats and world leaders over the future of the Strait of Hormuz. The waterway carried roughly a fifth of the world's oil before the war.
Pakistan's defense minister, Khawaja Asif, told reporters Tuesday that things are moving toward a resolution, according to Bloomberg News. "The signals in the last two to three days are that we are close to some sort of an arrangement," he said, without providing further details. He had earlier told reporters that "things are shaping up again in favor of a peace arrangement or a deal."
A Qatari Foreign Ministry spokesperson separately told Al Jazeera that talks between Iran and Oman about opening a shipping channel through the strait were at a "critical juncture," adding another layer of cautious optimism to the diplomatic picture.
At the same time, both Washington and Tehran appeared to be stiffening their positions. President Donald Trump said Monday that Iran should pay reparations for what he described as "the damage they've done" over the past half century. Speaking to reporters in the Oval Office, Trump said, "They asked for reparations, you might say, or they asked for money for the damage that we've done, and I said that's a good idea, well we're going to ask for money for the damage they've done over a 50-year period."
Trump said compensation could be applied toward damages for U.S. personnel killed or wounded in the Middle East, as well as to families of protesters killed during an Iranian government crackdown on mass unrest this year. "If there's damages to be paid, I think Iran should pay those damages," he said.
In a Truth Social post Monday, Trump also wrote, "It is an interesting idea because now I am likewise demanding compensation from Iran," and said he had "instructed my representatives to put this firmly into any, and all, future negotiations."
Iran had already laid out its own list of conditions on Saturday. Mohammad Bagher Zolghadr, secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, said the strait would not reopen until Washington lifts its naval blockade and sanctions, withdraws American forces from the region, pays war reparations, and releases frozen Iranian assets. The council also called for an end to U.S. attacks on Iran's regional allies.
Iran's Foreign Ministry pushed back Tuesday on economic claims made by U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, who had said U.S. sanctions were "suffocating" Iran. Ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei responded by saying Washington turns to sanctions whenever diplomacy fails.
Brent crude settled at $87.99 per barrel at 8:27 a.m. ET Tuesday, up 0.3% on the day, after paring the earlier gains that followed Pakistan's comments. Trump's reparations demand has added a new point of contention to negotiations that were already complicated by Iran's list of preconditions. No timeline for further talks has been announced.
