Trump says US will hold off on fresh Iran attack in hope of quick deal

At a cabinet meeting on Friday, Trump said he believed U.S. negotiators, including his son-in-law Jared Kushner, special envoy Steve Witkoff and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, could reach a deal with Iran.

As an April ceasefire in the war unravelled last month, benchmark Brent crude futures LCOc1 jumped 24%, and analysts polled by Reuters expect prices to rise further this year. O/R

Trump has argued that his stated goal of keeping Iran from gaining nuclear weapons justifies higher fuel costs in the near term, but the economic pain has put political pressure on him to find a way to end the war.

Adding to the energy industry's concerns, Iran's Houthi allies in Yemen in recent days began threatening the Bab el-Mandeb, the strait at the other end of the Red Sea from the Suez Canal, another export route for Saudi crude.

The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations said on Saturday it had received reports of two maritime incidents off Oman. In one, an unknown projectile struck a tanker, damaging the engine room. In the other, the master of a tanker reported seeing a large splash and an explosion close to the vessel, though no damage was reported.