The global economy is under \u201cmajor threat\u201d from the energy crisis caused by the\u00a0Middle East war\u00a0and \u201cno country will be immune\u201d to its effects, International Energy Agency chief Fatih Birol said Monday.<\/p>\n
Speaking at the National Press Club in Australia\u2019s capital, Birol compared the current energy crisis to those of the 1970s and the impact of Russia\u2019s 2022 invasion of Ukraine.<\/p>\n
Read:\u00a0Turkiye steps in for de-escalation amid Iran’s threat to fully close Hormuz if Trump targets energy sites<\/p>\n
\u201cThis crisis as things stand is now two oil crises and one gas crash put all together,\u201d Birol said. \u201cThe global economy is facing a major, major threat today, and I very much hope that this issue will be resolved as soon as possible,” he added.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo country will be immune to the effects of this crisis if it continues to go in this direction. So there is a need for global efforts.\u201d<\/p>\n
Strait of Hormuz<\/p>\n
US President Donald Trump and Tehran have issued tit-for-tat threats as the war entered its fourth week, with the US president demanding the Islamic Republic reopen the\u00a0blocked Strait of Hormuz, through which around 20% of the world\u2019s oil and gas shipments transit.<\/p>\n
The bottleneck has nearly halted all petroleum shipments through the narrow waterway.<\/p>\n
Oil prices\u00a0rose again early Monday, with US benchmark crude briefly touching the $100-per-barrel mark. Birol told Australian media that at least 40 energy assets across the region had been \u201cseverely or very severely damaged\u201d in the conflict.<\/p>\n
Birol made his remarks as the war between the US, Israel and Iran rages on.\u00a0Iran\u00a0on Monday faces a deadline by Trump to open up the Strait of Hormuz or face a major US assault on power plants, as Israel warned of weeks more of war.<\/p>\n
Read More:\u00a0US permits 30-day sale of Iran oil at sea in effort to tame prices<\/p>\n
Israel also gave the clearest signs, yet it intends a ground campaign into Lebanon, destroying a key bridge as it vows to crush Hezbollah, the Shia Muslim movement backed by Iran.<\/p>\n
Trump, after enthusiastically backing Israel in the war the two countries launched on February 28, is under political pressure as fuel prices rise, the result of Iran’s attempts to retaliate in the oil-rich Gulf.<\/p>\n
Trump on Saturday threatened to “obliterate” Iran’s power plants if it did not, within 48 hours, end its partial blockade of the Strait of Hormuz. Meanwhile, Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said on Sunday that the Islamic Republic will\u00a0completely shut the strait\u00a0if Trump executes threats to target Iranian energy facilities.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The global economy is under \u201cmajor threat\u201d from the energy crisis caused by the\u00a0Middle East war\u00a0and \u201cno country will be immune\u201d to its effects, International Energy Agency chief Fatih Birol said Monday. Speaking at the National Press Club in Australia\u2019s capital, Birol compared the current energy crisis to those of the 1970s and the impact …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2583,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2576","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistantimesusa.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2576","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistantimesusa.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistantimesusa.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistantimesusa.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistantimesusa.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2576"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/pakistantimesusa.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2576\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2588,"href":"https:\/\/pakistantimesusa.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2576\/revisions\/2588"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistantimesusa.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2583"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistantimesusa.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2576"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistantimesusa.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2576"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistantimesusa.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2576"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}