Oil prices tumble as Iran President says US has offered to drop sanctions
Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani has said that the US offered to lift all sanctions on his country to bring it to the negotiating table, sending oil prices down.
The US currently bans most trade with the oil-rich nation.
Read more: British tanker Stena Impero seized by Iran leaves port
The price of Brent crude oil, which was already in the red earlier, fell further to stand 2.6 per cent down at $61.16.
Yesterday the Iranian leader said that Iran could sit down to discussions if the US does not have any conditions. But US President Donald Trump would have to re-activate a 2015 nuclear deal which he ripped up last year.
“First, the deal should be fully implemented … meaning that sanctions should be lifted and America should return to the nuclear deal … and then other issues can be discussed as well,” Rouhani said.
“We want America to remove its preconditions for talking to Iran, including its ‘maximum pressure’ policy against the Iranian nation [before negotiating],” he added..
The news comes as the the British-flagged ship which had been detained in Iran for two months has finally joined international waterways and is headed for Dubai.
The Stena Impero was released this morning after having been boarded by Iran’s Revolutionary Guard in July. It has been held in port since.
The ship is currently sailing just off the north tip of Oman, and is closing in on the United Arab Emirates, data from Marine Traffic shows. It is headed for the country’s largest city, Dubai.
Tensions have ramped up in the Gulf region for a year since US President Donald Trump ripped up an agreement designed to stop Iran getting a nuclear weapon, sending oil prices fluctuating wildly.
Read more: Raab ‘confident’ Iran behind attacks on Saudi oil facilities
Iran boarded the Stena after British Royal Marines seized an Iranian tanker off the coast of Gibraltar on charges of bearking EU sanctions on Syria.
The Grace 1 – since renamed Adrian Darya 1 – was released just weeks later. It is currently sat off the coast of Syria.