JAKARTA - Iran's military command said on Wednesday the world must prepare for oil prices reaching $200 a barrel as three more ships were attacked in the blocked Gulf.
Iran fired at Israel and targets across the Middle East on Wednesday, showing it can still fight and disrupt energy supplies despite what the Pentagon described as the most intense US-Israeli attack to date.
Oil prices, which surged earlier this week, have eased and stock markets have rebounded, with investors betting that US President Donald Trump will find a quick way to end the war he started with Israel almost two weeks ago.
However, there has been no easing of tensions on the ground, nor any sign that vessels can safely sail through the Strait of Hormuz, where a fifth of the world's oil has been blocked behind a narrow channel along the Iranian coast in the worst energy supply disruption since the 1970s oil shock.
"Prepare for oil prices to reach 200 US dollars per barrel, because oil prices depend on regional security that you have destabilized," said spokesman for the Iranian military command Ebrahim Zolfaqari, in comments aimed at the United States, reported Al Arabiya and Reuters (12/3).
After a bank office in Tehran was attacked last night, Zolfaqari also said Iran would retaliate with attacks on banks that do business with the United States or Israel. People throughout the Middle East should keep a distance of 1,000 meters from banks, he added.
Previously, the International Energy Agency (IEA) stated that its member countries had agreed to release 400 million barrels of oil reserves in an effort to ease the spike in oil prices due to the Israeli-US attack on Iran.
"The oil market challenges we face are unprecedented in scale, which is why I am very pleased that IEA member countries have responded with unprecedented collective emergency action," IEA Executive Director Fatih Birol said in a press release, Thursday, March 12, quoted from NBC News.
Birol again reminded what his organization was doing today in accordance with its main task of securing global energy supplies and supporting a clean energy transition.
"The oil market is global, so the response to this major disruption must also be global. Energy security is the founding mandate of the IEA, and I am pleased that IEA members have shown strong solidarity in taking decisive action together," he continued.
The statement then said that IEA members have emergency reserves of more than 1.2 billion barrels, with an additional 600 million barrels of industrial reserves held under government obligations.
Separately, a senior Israeli official told Reuters that Israeli leaders now privately accept that Iran's system of government can survive a war.
Two other Israeli officials said there was no sign Washington would end the campaign soon.
The English, Chinese, Japanese, Arabic, and French versions are automatically generated by the AI. So there may still be inaccuracies in translating, please always see Indonesian as our main language. (system supported by DigitalSiber.id)
