PBS NewsHourIranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi says the United States and Israel have made the Middle East “insecure” and are responsible for disruptions in oil production and rising oil prices. “This is not our fault, this is not our plan,” he told PBS News Hour’s Amna Nawaz in an interview airing Monday evening. “The oil production, the transportation of oil has been slowed down, not because of us, because of the attacks and aggression made of Israelis and Americans against us.” This is “the result of the aggression by Israelis and Americans, which has made the whole region insecure, unstable,” he later added. “The consequences are huge for not only us, but for the whole region and now for the international community.”
The Strait of Hormuz, where about 20% of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas exports are shipped every day, has been effectively closed since the U.S. and Israel launched strikes against Iran on Feb. 28. On Monday, oil prices jumped at one point to more than $100 per barrel. The G7 group of industrialized nations said they planned to hold off for now on using their strategic oil reserves to counter the rising prices.
