A fresh escalation around the Strait of Hormuz has again shaken energy markets. Iran’s military said it destroyed an advanced American MQ-1 drone, while global oil prices climbed back above $100 a barrel.
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said Monday that its “new advanced aerospace defence system” intercepted and destroyed an MQ-1 drone over the Strait of Hormuz. It did not provide further details about the drone’s mission. The MQ-1 is manufactured by the U.S. defense company General Atomics and has historically been operated mainly by the U.S. Air Force and the CIA.
The incident follows a series of Iranian operations against U.S. unmanned naval systems in the Gulf. According to CNBC, the war has now entered its seventh month with little sign of easing, while diplomacy over the strategic waterway has stalled.
On Sunday, U.S. President Donald Trump said Washington could continue its campaign against Iran and take control of the country’s oil, comparing that scenario to the agreement the U.S. struck with Venezuela earlier this year. Speaking at the Irish Open golf championship in Ireland, he said of the Iran conflict: “We'll ultimately get out (of the war), unless we decide to stay and keep the oil like Venezuela.”
Trump also said U.S. revenue from the Venezuela arrangement, which gave Washington access to roughly a fifth of Venezuela’s oil reserves, has “paid for the war many times.” Under the August agreement, Venezuela ceded majority U.S. control of more than 65 billion barrels of oil reserves in exchange for $209 billion to Venezuela’s state treasury. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the deal could also bring close to $100 billion in private investment to revive the country’s economy.
Trump added Sunday that he expects the seven-month Iran war to end this year, possibly after the November midterm elections. He said gasoline prices would “drop like a rock” once that happens. The president also said he would make only the “right deal” and claimed Tehran had been “calling constantly” for peace talks, an assertion Iran has previously rejected.
Hormuz talks delayed
A planned meeting in Oman between Gulf countries and Iran to discuss possible arrangements for the Strait of Hormuz has been postponed. Omani Foreign Minister Badr Albusaidi said on X that more “consensus” was needed.
Officials from Iran and Gulf states had been expected to meet Monday and sign an agreement establishing an Iran-Oman shipping route through the Strait of Hormuz. At the same time, no direct talks were under way between the U.S. and Iran.
Since the war began in February, the Strait of Hormuz has been under first an Iranian and later a U.S. naval blockade, keeping global energy prices elevated. A June accord between Washington and Tehran fell apart over disagreements on the waterway, while a recent offensive by Yemen’s Houthi rebels has given the Tehran-aligned group leverage over another critical route, Bab el-Mandeb.
Ships deemed non-compliant have regularly been targeted by Iranian strikes, while the U.S. has periodically bombed Iran’s coastline to challenge the Islamic Republic’s control of the strait, the report said.
Oil prices rose back above $100 a barrel for the first time since May and moved higher again on Monday after Saudi Arabia shut a key East-West energy pipeline following damage from Iraqi drones. U.S. West Texas Intermediate futures were up 2.3% at $102.39 a barrel, while Brent crude, the international benchmark, gained 2.4% to $107.11 a barrel.
