US President Donald Trump announced on Tuesday that he would reinstitute a maximum pressure campaign on Iran and force its oil exports to zero.
This comes as countries in the Opec alliance continue cuts in production.
Among the orders outlined in the memo on Iran issued by Mr Trump, the Treasury and State departments were directed to start a campaign “driving Iran's oil exports to zero”, Reuters reported. The memo did not describe how the US would do this.
US oil prices pared losses on Tuesday, recouping some due to the tariff friction between Washington and China earlier in the day. US West Texas Intermediate closed 0.63 per cent – or 46 cents – lower at $72.70 per barrel on Tuesday, while Brent crude futures rose 0.32 per cent – or 24 cents – to close the day at $76.20.
“The oil market has not moved substantially since this was announced, which indicates that it was already expected and priced in,” said Justin Alexander of Khalij Economics.
The announcement comes after Opec rebuffed Mr Trump's demands to lower oil prices by increasing output. The alliance announced late last year that its voluntary oil production cuts of 2.2 million barrels per day would continue until March this year.
Once that passes, the supply curbs will be phased out each month until the end of September 2026.
“So, it's a very slow, gradual process still leaves production significantly constrained, particularly for the Gulf states that are participating in the voluntary cuts,” Mr Alexander said.
While Iran is still a long way from near-zero oil exports, experts say that Opec has enough space to absorb the about 500,000 barrels per day that would be taken off the market because of sanctions enforcement.
Rachel Ziemba, a geoeconomic and country risk expert, said real losses could allow Opec to do the easing or speed up the unwinding of the cuts. With the Trump administration still a way from bringing Iran's oil exports down to zero, Opec can afford to carry on with its plans.
Mr Trump's moves follow action by former president Joe Biden during his final weeks in office, in which he placed new energy restrictions on Russia.
“So, I do think one of the other factors is, how tough does the US move towards more extensive maximum pressure at the same time that they're trying to tighten up, put more pressure on Russia?” Ms Ziemba said.
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Conflict, drought, famine
Estimates of the number of deaths caused by the famine range from 400,000 to 1 million, according to a document prepared for the UK House of Lords in 2024.
It has been claimed that the policies of the Ethiopian government, which took control after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie in a military-led revolution in 1974, contributed to the scale of the famine.
Dr Miriam Bradley, senior lecturer in humanitarian studies at the University of Manchester, has argued that, by the early 1980s, “several government policies combined to cause, rather than prevent, a famine which lasted from 1983 to 1985. Mengistu’s government imposed Stalinist-model agricultural policies involving forced collectivisation and villagisation [relocation of communities into planned villages].
The West became aware of the catastrophe through a series of BBC News reports by journalist Michael Buerk in October 1984 describing a “biblical famine” and containing graphic images of thousands of people, including children, facing starvation.
Band Aid
Bob Geldof, singer with the Irish rock group The Boomtown Rats, formed Band Aid in response to the horrific images shown in the news broadcasts.
With Midge Ure of the band Ultravox, he wrote the hit charity single Do They Know it’s Christmas in December 1984, featuring a string of high-profile musicians.
Following the single’s success, the idea to stage a rock concert evolved.
Live Aid was a series of simultaneous concerts that took place at Wembley Stadium in London, John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, the US, and at various other venues across the world.
The combined event was broadcast to an estimated worldwide audience of 1.5 billion.
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Ahmed Raza
UAE cricket captain
Age: 31
Born: Sharjah
Role: Left-arm spinner
One-day internationals: 31 matches, 35 wickets, average 31.4, economy rate 3.95
T20 internationals: 41 matches, 29 wickets, average 30.3, economy rate 6.28
It's Monty Python's Crashing Rocket Circus
To the theme tune of the famous zany British comedy TV show, SpaceX has shown exactly what can go wrong when you try to land a rocket.
The two minute video posted on YouTube is a compilation of crashes and explosion as the company, created by billionaire Elon Musk, refined the technique of reusable space flight.
SpaceX is able to land its rockets on land once they have completed the first stage of their mission, and is able to resuse them multiple times - a first for space flight.
But as the video, How Not to Land an Orbital Rocket Booster, demonstrates, it was a case if you fail, try and try again.
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Engine: 4.4-litre twin-turbo V-8 petrol enging with additional electric motor
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Torque: 1,000Nm
Transmission: 8-speed auto
Fuel consumption: 10.6L/100km
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What it means to be a conservationist
Who is Enric Sala?
Enric Sala is an expert on marine conservation and is currently the National Geographic Society's Explorer-in-Residence. His love of the sea started with his childhood in Spain, inspired by the example of the legendary diver Jacques Cousteau. He has been a university professor of Oceanography in the US, as well as working at the Spanish National Council for Scientific Research and is a member of the World Economic Forum’s Global Future Council on Biodiversity and the Bio-Economy. He has dedicated his life to protecting life in the oceans. Enric describes himself as a flexitarian who only eats meat occasionally.
What is biodiversity?
According to the United Nations Environment Programme, all life on earth – including in its forests and oceans – forms a “rich tapestry of interconnecting and interdependent forces”. Biodiversity on earth today is the product of four billion years of evolution and consists of many millions of distinct biological species. The term ‘biodiversity’ is relatively new, popularised since the 1980s and coinciding with an understanding of the growing threats to the natural world including habitat loss, pollution and climate change. The loss of biodiversity itself is dangerous because it contributes to clean, consistent water flows, food security, protection from floods and storms and a stable climate. The natural world can be an ally in combating global climate change but to do so it must be protected. Nations are working to achieve this, including setting targets to be reached by 2020 for the protection of the natural state of 17 per cent of the land and 10 per cent of the oceans. However, these are well short of what is needed, according to experts, with half the land needed to be in a natural state to help avert disaster.
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Farage on Muslim Brotherhood
Nigel Farage told Reform's annual conference that the party will proscribe the Muslim Brotherhood if he becomes Prime Minister.
"We will stop dangerous organisations with links to terrorism operating in our country," he said. "Quite why we've been so gutless about this – both Labour and Conservative – I don't know.
“All across the Middle East, countries have banned and proscribed the Muslim Brotherhood as a dangerous organisation. We will do the very same.”
It is 10 years since a ground-breaking report into the Muslim Brotherhood by Sir John Jenkins.
Among the former diplomat's findings was an assessment that “the use of extreme violence in the pursuit of the perfect Islamic society” has “never been institutionally disowned” by the movement.
The prime minister at the time, David Cameron, who commissioned the report, said membership or association with the Muslim Brotherhood was a "possible indicator of extremism" but it would not be banned.
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• Round up: Experts share their visions of the world to come
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Mina Al Oraibi: Air strike casts a long shadow over the decade ahead
Jack Moore: Why the assassination is such a monumental gamble
Damien McElroy: A CEO tasked with spreading Iran's influence
Hussein Ibish: Trump's order on solid constitutional ground
Simon Waldman: Cautious Israel keeping a low profile
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Justin Thomas: Challenge the notion that 'men are from Mars, women are from Venus'
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Premier League
Manchester United 2 (Martial 30', Lingard 69')
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Lexus LX700h specs
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Power: 464hp at 5,200rpm
Torque: 790Nm from 2,000-3,600rpm
Transmission: 10-speed auto
Fuel consumption: 11.7L/100km
On sale: Now
Price: From Dh590,000
