Oil prices rose Wednesday as talks to end the US-Israeli war with Iran appeared to be at a standstill and the crucial Strait of Hormuz was no nearer to being reopened.

While the White House said US President Donald Trump and his team were considering Tehran’s latest proposal to restore traffic through the narrow waterway, the pathway for a fifth of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas, CNN and the Wall Street Journal reported that Trump was skeptical of the plan.

The Islamic Republic’s plan, submitted this week, would reportedly see it lift its chokehold on the strait and have Washington end its retaliatory blockade on the country’s ports as talks continued, while delaying negotiations on Tehran’s nuclear program to a later stage.

While US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Iran’s proposal was “better than what we thought they were going to submit,” he rejected shelving the nuclear issue and insisted any eventual deal had to be “one that definitively prevents them from sprinting towards a nuclear weapon.”

Iranian Defense Ministry spokesman Reza Talaei-Nik said Washington “must abandon its illegal and irrational demands,” adding that the United States was “no longer in a position to dictate its policy to independent nations.”

Qatar warned of a “frozen conflict” if a definitive resolution is not found.

Iran’s blockade of the strait began soon after the US and Israel launched their war with Iran on February 28 in a bid to destabilize Iran’s regime and destroy its ballistic........

© The Times of Israel