US President Donald Trump has accused Iran of inventing attacks in the Strait of Hormuz to push oil prices higher ahead of the November 3 US midterm elections. "Iran is doing everything it can to drive up oil prices ahead of the US midterm elections. They are even making up attacks that never happened, mines and other things, because more oil is currently being shipped through the Strait of Hormuz than before the conflict began," Trump said in a post on his Truth Social platform, quoted by multiple outlets reporting the post.

Source: Trump Truth Social post, via TodayPress

Trump repeated to reporters that the United States was not negotiating with Iran: "No, I think we're not negotiating. We are going to have something one way or the other that'll happen fairly soon." His accusation is a claim, not an established finding — it has not been independently established that Tehran invented the reported incidents.

Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy said on Thursday that four vessels involved in illegal oil transfers in the northern Persian Gulf were simultaneously hit and caught fire after being tracked by its forces on Wednesday, and that three more vessels collided with mines west of the Strait of Hormuz, Reuters reported. The IRGC also warned the US military that continued provocations could lead to a wider response against its regional bases. The US military has previously called Iranian mine claims false, according to market reports summarising the exchanges.

Source: Reuters

Markets took the tension seriously even as the claims clashed: Brent crude rose more than 3% to above $113 a barrel, a five-month high, as traders weighed the risk to shipments through Hormuz, the world's most important oil chokepoint, through which Persian Gulf exports averaging around 24 million barrels a day move.

Yaani, in easier terms: oil at $113 a barrel is the most expensive crude in five months — and costlier crude usually flows through to petrol, diesel, transport and food prices for ordinary households, including in Punjab and across the diaspora, which is why a war of words over one strait matters far beyond the Gulf.