Oil hovers around $100 after US strikes on Iran

• US hits Iranian military targets
• Brent crude briefly passes $100
• Trump claims talks ‘proceeding nicely’

Oil prices are hovering around the $100 per barrel mark after the US launched new strikes on Iran overnight, straining ongoing peace talks.

Brent crude rose 4 percent to $100 before settling slightly below after US military commanders said they had targeted Iranian missile launch sites and boats trying to lay mines.

US Central Command spokesman Captain Tim Hawkins said the attacks were defensive and designed to “protect our troops from threats posed by Iranian forces”.

The head of the national security committee of Iran’s parliament, Ebrahim Azizi, told state broadcaster IRIB that any attacks on the country’s armed forces would be met with “a decisive, crushing and regrettable response”.

The strikes come as Washington and Tehran are locked in negotiations over an agreement to extend their ceasefire and reopen the Strait of Hormuz.

The effective closure of the waterway, through which a fifth of the world’s daily oil supplies usually pass, has upended global energy trading.

US president Donald Trump said on Monday that talks were “proceeding nicely” in a post on social media network Truth Social.

Oil prices have see-sawed since the conflict began on February 28, rising as high as $126 a barrel. Before the conflict began, Brent was trading at about $70.

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