Iran fires on tanker & container ship; Hormuz closed again

[0:00] what do we know as to what's happening right now in the strait yeah interesting as well listening [0:06] to the president saying that he is not going to be held hostage by iran he did say that he thought [0:11] things were going along well i think everyone thought about five or six hours ago since then [0:17] the iranians have appeared to attack two shipping vessels in the strait of humoz one tanker just off [0:25] the coast of oman so very close to the strait of humoz uh said it was a said uh two irgc iranian [0:32] gun gun boats came at it and didn't talk to it on the radio literally opened fire on this tanker [0:38] the crew and the vessel are reported safe and then about two hours later in the same area an [0:45] unidentified projectile hit a container ship some of the containers damaged no fire no environmental [0:51] damage but this comes just hours just hours after the iranians said they were reversing their opening [0:59] of the strait of humoz we've heard a lot of pushback from hardliners in iran saying that that move [1:05] essentially was too soft and that they are not responding well to the fact that president trump [1:11] said that the us blockade would remain in place iran accuses the united states here of not uh following [1:18] through on its obligations on the ceasefire so we've gone from a point of early this morning where [1:23] things look like they were moving along well talks getting close people talking about potential of [1:29] talks here in islamabad in a couple of days iranians upping the ante and i think perhaps that what that [1:35] gets to what the president said he's not going to be held hostage and he said he's expecting an update [1:40] on the situation later today nick how much of this has to do with the situation in lebanon with israel [1:49] or are these events concentrated based on concerns over the strait itself um absolutely the the iranians [1:58] opening the strait of humoz was based on the fact that they saw president trump and the pakistani [2:04] negotiators the uh field marshal here uh muneer get this ceasefire in lebanon that was a big part of [2:10] moving things forward but the iranians they then did a quid pro quo and opened the strait of humoz because [2:17] of course they wanted that ceasefire in lebanon they thought there'd be a positive response from [2:22] the white house that's what they're saying what we've witnessed is a negative response in iran [2:28] to president trump's response we've even seen internal tensions in iran between the hardliners [2:34] and the moderates the moderates are the ones who were in the negotiations the hardliners have been [2:39] saying that uh had been threatening to reclose the strait of humoz they've gone ahead and done that [2:46] their gunboats appear to be attacking uh maritime vessels tankers container ships close to the strait [2:52] of humoz so the two things are interlinked but we're now back to the bigger issue here of u.s [2:58] iran tensions do we the talks or does this latest escalation at the strait of humoz does it scuttle [3:05] all of that the president said that we'll know more later today and i imagine that will be the case [3:11] nick robertson in islamabad thank you for that report this latest escalation could mean big issues [3:18] for oil and gas prices so let's discuss now with yahoo fan finance correspondent ben warschel uh ben [3:24] good morning to you obviously the the the impact the consequence of these iranian gunboats firing on [3:30] a tanker go beyond that exchange it's the chilling as nick said of any um willingness of any of the [3:41] other companies to send their vessels through fit this piece of the puzzle into what has been clear [3:47] as mud over the last 24 hours about the strait of humoz yeah i think chilling is the right is the right [3:56] word here and this is a chill that's been in evidence even even through all these ups and downs [4:01] from the shipping industry even with this announcement of of of an opening of the strait of humoz [4:06] this this these latest development in the last hour will clearly amplify that further but the [4:11] shipping industry has been very wary even as even as oil prices have come down of of of increasing [4:18] their shipping through we've seen chips start to come through and then turn around we've seen a few [4:22] as nick mentioned a cruise ship getting through but that is kind of more of the exception rather [4:26] than the rule at this moment prior to the war it was over 130 ships that would pass through the [4:31] strait of humoz on a given day now it's we're hoping for sort of 20 on a given day and and we're not [4:36] even to there yet so what we're what i'm hearing a lot from the shipping industry is that this is [4:41] going to be a long road back even in a best case scenario here of of a straight of of a straight of [4:46] humoz some sort of level of reopening obviously the last couple hours have made that even more [4:51] difficult but this is going to be a long road back with with hundreds and hundreds of ships still [4:55] stuck on either side of the strait yeah those those vessels and we can put the map back up they're not [5:01] moving on rhetoric right they need some proof they need some security the oil prices yesterday [5:07] certainly moved on rhetoric brent crude down nine percent um around ninety dollars or so a barrel [5:16] i wonder is the expectation that after what we saw today that that the inverse is going to happen [5:26] it could be yeah we will the the oil prices we won't know sort of how how the oil prices move for [5:31] for a little bit given it's the fact that it's the weekend but the ships are are simply not going [5:36] to move until until there's a lot more clarity on this another aspect of this that's important is that [5:41] even this this opening of the straight of humoz from the iranian side has been couched as towards [5:46] the end of this ceasefire that ceasefire is set to end on wednesday and even president trump has talked [5:51] in the last in the last day about about about resuming bombing after that so the these shippers need a lot [5:58] more a lot more certainty here about whether they can pass through whether they can get the insurance [6:04] to get through and kind of increase the oil flows that were that were to pre-war levels we're a long [6:09] long ways from that and even if even if we see a lot of good developments in the last week it's going [6:13] to be weeks and weeks after that before we kind of see markets fully stabilize on this all right ben let's [6:18] talk gas prices uh the president was uh in nevada talking up the economy uh by the way 4.99 a gallon uh in [6:27] clark county uh nationally the average this morning according to aaa is 406. here's the president [6:33] talking about um the economy his narrative on gas and the economy at large well they're not very high [6:41] if you look at what they were supposed to be in order to get rid of a nuclear weapon with the danger [6:46] that entails in the report released last week core inflation was down to the lowest level in five years [6:52] and very shortly we're going to be probably eight or nine years don't forget we're having some fake [6:57] inflation because of the fuel the energy prices we had the best economy in the history of our country [7:02] in my first term and we're blowing it out now we're blowing it away now and despite our little [7:07] diversion despite our little diversion to the lovely country of iran yeah and the president uh also uh [7:18] saying that you know prices on gas are going to come falling down the initial narrative from the white [7:24] house was short-term pain for long-term gain and now it sounds like it's shifted to what pain yeah [7:34] yeah and exactly and i think that this this price coming the price of coming down of gas is going to [7:40] be a long-term process here there's an economics terms called rockets and feathers where prices [7:45] at the pump shoot up like a rocket i think everyone who's had to fill up their car in the last [7:49] months has seen that that's a side but then it comes down much more slowly like a feather going down [7:54] that that's been a problem for presidents for years and biden felt it almost exactly four years [8:00] ago with the with the invasion of ukraine with high prices there and i think we're going to be talking [8:05] about that a lot all the way through the summer there's new projections from gas buddy that talk [8:10] about you know the prices now are over four dollars a gallon but even early estimates there are the [8:15] best case scenario and i think the developments this morning cast further doubt on that only 350 gallon [8:21] 350 a gallon gas by the end of the summer that's months and months away 380 um as as the summer [8:28] begins so this is going to be the projections are a very slow process down for gas prices if we're [8:33] looking at the history here and one that i think will be frustrating for the white house hoping for [8:37] this rapid fall and i think frustrating for folks who are who are planning their summer travel as [8:42] well all right ben worseco thanks so much