Iran Negotiations Day 8: Price of Oil Returns to Pre-War Levels

The price of oil fell to below pre-war levels on Thursday, as a 60-day interim peace deal to the Iran War continued to hold for its eighth day.

Brent Crude oil dropped to $72.40 on Thursday morning, slightly lower than the closing price of $72.48 on February 27, the day before the U.S. and Israel bombed Iran.

Shipping tracker MarineTracker reported that traffic through the Strait of Hormuz remained steady on Tuesday, with 31 verified crossings recorded, noting that “the Strait appears to remain operational under the U.S.-Iran MoU framework” but noting uncertainty among ship operators beyond the 60-day period kicked off by the memorandum of understanding signed by the American and Iranian presidents last week. Kpler reported that at least 70 ships transited the waterway on Wednesday, more than double the number of verified crossings recorded the previous day.

Iran’s Speaker of Parliament Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf disputed President Donald Trump’s claim that any Iranian assets unfrozen as part of the peace agreement would be used exclusively for U.S. agricultural products, writing on X that “the US only exports GMO soybeans, broken promises and trash talk.”

An anonymous U.S. State Department official told Reuters that Israel had withdrawn from what it calls its “buffer zones” in southern Lebanon, but senior Israeli and Lebanese officials denied the claim soon after. Israel’s Defense Minister Israel Katz said Wednesday that the U.S. has not requested that Israel withdraw from territory it occupies in southern Lebanon and that “even if there is an American demand,” Israel would not withdraw. 

The 60-day interim peace deal signed on June 17 conditions an end to the conflict on the “immediate and permanent termination of military operations on all fronts, including in Lebanon” and “ensuring the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Lebanon.” Iran threatened to leave the deal if Israel’s bombing and occupation of the country continued.

Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei on Wednesday evening accused NATO of “complicity” in the Iran War in response to comments made by NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte on Fox News that “country after country, ally after ally after ally, have made their bases available for Epic Fury,” and that “five hundred U.S. planes took off from U.S. bases in Italy to support Epic Fury.”

AAA reported the national average price of regular gas at $3.92.