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Financial Times: Rome and Paris begin secret talks with Iran over Strait of Hormuz to reach deal
2026-03-13 19:01:34 / BOTA
France and Italy have reportedly opened talks with Iranian officials in the hope of negotiating a deal to allow their ships to pass through the Strait of Hormuz, after a week-long blockade of the shipping lane caused chaos in global energy markets.
Both countries, which have seen gas prices rise, are seeking to open talks with Tehran, unidentified officials told the Financial Times.
Iran has threatened to "set fire" to any ship passing through Hormuz without its permission, and as a result, the channel through which more than 20% of the world's daily oil demand flows has been virtually at a standstill.
Mojtaba Khamenei, who was appointed as Iran's new Supreme Leader after his father was killed in a US airstrike, said in a message on Thursday that he would continue to block the strait.
Warships from Italy, France and Greece stationed in the Red Sea are not prepared to escort ships through the strait, the FT reported, and the US military has also rejected a series of requests to escort oil tankers through the passage.
The ability to disrupt the oil market is one of Iran's most valuable levers in the ongoing conflict, which so far does not directly involve France or Italy, and it is unclear how willing the country will be to negotiate with the nations.
Fuel prices have increased in France by an average of about 15 cents per liter, or 57 cents per gallon, since the start of the conflict, and about 34 cents per gallon in Italy.
The ongoing conflict in Iran has affected global oil supplies in many ways, as the Strait of Hormuz connects the Gulf to the Arabian Sea.
About 20 million barrels of oil passed through the Strait of Hormuz every day last year, the equivalent of about a day's worth of oil use by the United States.
In addition to blocking the passage, retaliatory attacks by Iran forced the suspension of production at refineries in Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar.
Iran, which produces less than 5% of the world's oil each year, also had its refineries damaged. Brent, the international oil benchmark, has risen to more than $100 a barrel on several occasions since the conflict began. The International Energy Agency said its member countries would release 400 million barrels of oil from emergency reserves to combat supply disruptions, the largest release of reserves in history.
On Thursday, the US said it was suspending its sanctions on Russian oil to allow the purchase of oil that is already stranded at sea, and is considering temporarily waiving the Jones Act, a maritime shipping law, to allow more ships to deliver to US ports.
The White House earlier this week promised that the increase in gas prices would be temporary, with press secretary Caroline Leavitt vowing that “Americans will see oil and gas prices fall rapidly, potentially even lower than they were” before the Iran attack. However, on Thursday Trump shifted the emphasis away from keeping gas prices low, noting that the US makes “a lot of money” when oil prices rise.
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