Trump thanks Iran for reopening Strait of Ormuz as oil prices plunge 10%

On Friday morning, Iran announced it would reopen the Strait of Hormuz—the waterway through which roughly one-fifth of the world's oil flows—for the duration of a ten-day ceasefire that had just taken effect in the Middle East. Within hours, oil prices collapsed. The Brent crude benchmark, which serves as the global reference, fell 10.42 percent to $89 a barrel. West Texas Intermediate dropped 11.11 percent. Traders had been bracing for scarcity; the sudden prospect of supply flowing freely again sent markets into freefall.

President Trump responded with a public thank-you posted to his social media platform. He declared the move a sign that a comprehensive peace deal with Iran was within reach—perhaps, he suggested, within one or two days. In a call with the news agency Axios, Trump said the Iranians wanted to meet, wanted an agreement, and that he expected a weekend negotiation followed by a signed deal very soon. He told the Associated Press there were no remaining "conflictive points" standing in the way. Yet even as he spoke optimistically about imminent peace, Trump made clear the United States would maintain its naval blockade on Iranian vessels until a final accord was signed. The contradiction was immediate and stark.

Iran's government pushed back hard. Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, the speaker of Iran's parliament who led his country's delegation in talks, warned that if the American blockade persisted, the Strait would close again. The transit of ships through that waterway, he said on social media, would depend on Tehran's permission. The foreign ministry spokesman, Esmail Baghaei, flatly rejected Trump's claim that Iran had agreed to hand over its enriched uranium reserves to the United States. Such a transfer, Baghaei said, had never been on the table. "Like the soil of Iran is important and sacred to us, so is the enriched uranium," he explained. Trump responded by saying American excavators would go into Iranian nuclear facilities and extract the material by force if necessary—a statement that seemed to undermine his own narrative of an imminent deal.

Meanwhile, the human toll of six weeks of fighting in Lebanon became clearer. The Lebanese health ministry reported 2,294 deaths, including 177 children, and 7,544 wounded from Israeli military operations that began on March 2. Among the dead were 100 healthcare workers. Israeli strikes had damaged 25 medical facilities and destroyed six hospitals. The World Health Organization warned that Lebanon's health system was under severe strain. Yet even as families began streaming back to their homes along damaged roads—kilometers-long convoys of vehicles loaded with salvaged possessions—the ceasefire remained fragile. Israel's defense minister said the military operation in Lebanon "has not ended." Hezbollah, in a statement released Friday, said its fighters kept their "finger on the trigger," ready to resume fighting if Israel violated the truce.

International leaders welcomed the opening of the Strait, though with varying degrees of caution. French President Emmanuel Macron, meeting with the leaders of Britain, Germany, and Italy, called for a "total, immediate, unconditional" reopening. Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney expressed solidarity with Gulf nations. Japan pledged to contribute to maritime security in the waterway. The United Nations Secretary-General called it a step in the right direction. But beneath the diplomatic relief lay a harder reality: Europe had only six weeks of jet fuel remaining, according to the International Energy Agency director. The summer tourism season—economically vital for many European regions—had been in jeopardy.

Argentina's president, Javier Milei, announced he would travel to Israel on Saturday to meet with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, his principal geopolitical ally alongside Trump. The visit came as the ceasefire was set to expire on April 22. In Iraq, the Trump administration sanctioned seven Iran-aligned militia commanders for orchestrating attacks on American personnel and facilities. Trump also criticized Spain for refusing to allow U.S. aircraft to use Spanish bases during the conflict, and he dismissed NATO as "absolutely useless," saying the alliance had offered help only after the crisis was essentially resolved.

By late Friday, oil prices had stabilized around $86 per barrel—still down sharply from the week before but having recovered slightly from the initial shock. Three Iranian tankers, all under U.S. sanctions, had crossed the Strait on Wednesday carrying five million barrels of crude—the first Iranian oil shipment through that passage since the American blockade began. The question now was whether the diplomatic momentum would hold. Trump's optimism about a deal within days stood in stark contrast to Iran's insistence on a permanent end to the war, not merely a temporary ceasefire. The Strait remained open, but the underlying tensions—over uranium, over blockades, over the terms of any final settlement—remained unresolved.