Oil prices ease back as Iran suggests it's open to talks with US

(Sharecast News) - Oil prices eased back again on Monday after Iran suggested that it remains open to diplomatic talks with the US. At 1047 BST, Brent crude was down 0.4% at $87.73 a barrel and Brent crude was 1% lower at $81.70 after Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei said at a press conference in Tehran: "We have been informed by mediators, we have received messages - without going into details - but the main point is that the diplomatic apparatus has been active in recent days and ideas have been conveyed to us by certain mediators."

Earlier, Brent crude had breached $90 a barrel and hit its highest level since June after US forces attacked Iran for the ninth night and as Tehran pledged that not a "single drop" of oil or gas would transit through the Strait of Hormuz if US aggression continues.

Speaking to reporters on his return to Washington after the World Cup, Trump said: "We hit them very hard again tonight." He said the US had done it in honour of three US soldiers killed in strikes in Jordan and Iraq.

Meanwhile, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said the Strait of Hormuz "will not be safe for the transit of petrochemical products, nor even a single drop of oil and gas" as long as the US strikes continue. It added that it will respond with a "punitive operation".