Oil prices hit their highest level since the start of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 on Wednesday, as the United States appears to be preparing for a long blockade of Iranian ports, in response to Tehran's blockade of the Strait of Hormuz. During his first hearing in the House of Representatives since the start of the conflict, US Defense Minister Pete Hegseth was sharply criticized by Democrats.

Published on: 04/29/2026 - 1:19 p.m. Modified on: 04/30/2026 - 08:23

On Wednesday April 29, the United States raised the prospect of a long blockade of Iranian ports, which would further prolong the pressure on the global economy, with an immediate impact on oil prices, which have soared to their highest level in four years.

The conflict, triggered on February 28 by an Israeli-American attack on Tehran, has left thousands dead, mainly in Iran and Lebanon, and its repercussions continue to shake the world economy.

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Frozen since the ceasefire of April 8, the conflict could drag on, with the Americans seeming to be preparing for a long blockade of Iranian ports, in response to Iran's blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, through which a fifth of the hydrocarbons consumed in the world usually transit.

At a meeting Tuesday at the White House with oil executives, participants discussed "steps President Trump has taken to relieve international oil markets and steps we could take to continue the current blockade for months if necessary and minimize its impact on U.S. consumers," a senior administration official reported Wednesday.

Oil at its highest since 2022

“The blockade is a little more effective than bombing,” commented Donald Trump himself in an interview with the American site Axios.

While the prospects for negotiations with Iran are at a standstill, oil prices reacted quickly, with a barrel of Brent from the North Sea climbing during the session to more than 119 dollars, the highest since 2022 and the large-scale invasion of Ukraine by Russia.

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Analysts fear a continuation of the blockade of the strait by Tehran in response. “This suggests a prolonged impasse: the fighting has largely stopped, but no lasting solution is emerging,” explain the experts from the DNB firm.

The United States wants to "activate economic pressure and internal divisions (...) to weaken us or even make us collapse from within", reacted the powerful President of the Iranian Parliament, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, calling for "unity".

In a telephone call, Russian President Vladimir Putin warned Donald Trump of the "damaging consequences" that further military action against Iran would have, "not only for Iran and its neighbors, but also for the entire international community."

Pete Hegseth on the parliamentary grill

With no outcome in sight in the conflict, the American Minister of Defense was treated to a volley of greenhorns from the Democrats during his first hearing in the House of Representatives since the start of the conflict.

“Geopolitical catastrophe”, “strategic disaster”, “incompetence”, “self-inflicted wound”, “quagmire” and other lies... the American deputies did not spare Pete Hegseth.

The Pentagon chief revealed that the war in Iran has cost $25 billion so far, justifying it with a question: "What is the price to pay to ensure that Iran never acquires a nuclear weapon?"

Worsening poverty

The economic consequences of the conflict are particularly felt in Iran, where the national currency, the rial, has reached its lowest level against the dollar since the advent of the Islamic Republic in 1979, according to several currency monitoring sites.

In the capital, some display their fatalism. “The idea of ​​reliving the war is terrifying, but we also have no hope for the outcome of the negotiations,” confides Ali, a 52-year-old architect, contacted by an AFP journalist in Paris.

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The surge in energy prices threatens to throw more than 30 million people into poverty around the world, the administrator of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) warned in an interview with AFP.

Although the truce has been extended sine die, the two camps still cannot agree to resume their negotiations, after an unsuccessful first session on April 11 in Pakistan, the mediating country. The Iranians “better get smart, and fast!” threatened Donald Trump on his Truth Social network.

On the Lebanese front, where Israel is fighting the pro-Iranian Hezbollah movement, two people, including a soldier, were killed in a new Israeli strike in the south of the country, according to the Lebanese army. The day before, Israeli bombings had left 19 dead, including three rescuers on mission.

President Joseph Aoun called on Israel to "fully implement" the April 17 ceasefire, before any direct peace negotiations between the two countries, for which he said he expected the United States to set a date.

In a Lebanon plunged for years into a serious economic crisis, the World Food Program (WFP) warned that 1.2 million people (out of 4 to 5 million inhabitants) were at risk of acute food insecurity.

With AFP

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