U.S. President Donald Trump says the U.S. blockade on ships travelling through the Strait of Hormuz “will now be lifted.”
“Ships caught in the Strait due to our amazing and unprecedented Naval Blockade, which will now be lifted, may start the process of ‘heading home!’ Say HELLO to your wives, husbands, parents, and families from me, your favorite President!” reads his post on Truth Social.
Following the U.S.-Israeli strikes on Iran in February, Iran instituted blockades on some tankers travelling through the strait In response, the U.S. set up its own blockades on Iranian ports.
In peacetime, about 20 per cent of the world’s crude oil moves through the strait, which shares a shore with southern Iran. The interruptions to that thoroughfare has spiked oil and gas prices around the world and left Canadians in some areas paying more than $2 per litre at the pump.
Trump’s post appears to precede a meeting in the Situation Room to “make a final decision.” Earlier in the statement, he lists a series of outstanding demands on Iran’s leadership: the strait needs to be open and toll-free, no nukes and any undersea mines need to be removed.
He also demanded the destruction of Iran’s so-called “nuclear dust” – a shorthand he uses frequently to refer to the highly enriched uranium that is believed to be buried under nuclear sites the U.S. bombed during last year’s 12-day war between Israel and Iran.
Global markets rose Friday following reporting earlier in the week suggesting Iran and the U.S. were close to a deal. The Dow Jones rose 389 points to top 51,000 points in early-afternoon trading. The S&P was up 0.35 per cent, in line with growth in the Nasdaq composite. The TSX has logged more modest gains, rising 0.13 per cent to 34,554 points.
Oil prices eased somewhat as well. Brent crude, an international standard, fell 1.8 per cent to US$92 a barrel earlier on Friday. It remains significantly above the US$70 per barrel level in late February, before the war began.
Gas prices in Canada fell eight cents on average compared to last week’s $1.84 benchmark. The national average on Friday was $176.2 cents per litre by 12:45 ET. Drivers in Manitoba enjoyed Canada’s lowest average prices, at 1.65.9 per litre, slightly lower than Alberta, where a litre of gas cost $1.66.
With files from the Associated Press.
