The European Union has postponed a law to permanently ban Russian oil. The delay is due to rapidly rising oil and gas prices following America’s and Israel’s attack on Iran and the blocking of the Strait of Hormuz. The war in Iran has pushed oil prices above the psychological $100 ceiling. On one occasion last week, the Brent crude price exceeded $119 per barrel.
Consequently, the European Commission has decided to delay the presentation of the bill to ban Russian oil imports permanently. There has been a standoff between the EU and Slovakia and Hungary, which continue to buy Russian oil. Their oil comes through the Soviet Druzhba pipeline.
European lawmakers had hoped to unveil the new legislation on 15th April, 2026. However, the scheduled date has now been removed from the calendar. Euronews quotes Anna-Kaisa Itkonen, the Commission’s spokesperson for energy, who said the following on Tuesday morning:
“I do not have a new date to give. What I can reassure you of is that we remain committed to making this proposal.”
Oil price & the Strait of Hormuz
Twenty percent of the world’s oil and LNG (liquefied natural gas) passes through the Strait of Hormuz, a narrow sea passage between Iran and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Iran has responded to the military attack by firing at ships that go through the Strait and placing mines in the sea.
Consequently, nearly all shipping has stopped, which has alarmed investors globally and pushed up the price of oil and LNG.
Is Trump telling the truth?
On Saturday, Donald Trump threatened to blow up Iran’s energy installations by Monday if they did not reopen the Strait of Hormuz and allow oil shipping to continue normally, which sent oil prices soaring. On Monday, however, he made a mega U-turn, and said that he would postpone his threat by five days, given that the US and Iran had had ‘productive conversations’. Iran, however, said that it was not true; they vehemently stated that no conversations with the US had taken place.
According to Al Jazeera, a reputable Middle Eastern news organization, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, Iran’s Parliamentary Speaker, wrote the following on social media:
“No negotiations have been held with the US, and fake news is used to manipulate the financial and oil markets and escape the quagmire in which the US and Israel are trapped,”
On Monday morning, after President Trump’s statement, oil prices fell and the stock market recovered rapidly. On Tuesday, however, after investors and other market players had time to digest Iran’s statement and wondered whether Trump was telling the truth, oil prices started to rise rapidly again.
Trump insisted that Steve Witkoff, the US envoy, and Jared Kushner, his son-in-law, had been in talks with an Iranian leader on Sunday. The US President added that the two nations had been in discussions to bring an end to the war since Saturday night.
According to The Independent, a respectable British newspaper, President Trump said:
“We are now having really good discussions, they started last night, a little bit the night before that. I think they’re really good. They want peace, they agreed they will not have a nuclear weapon.”
“I think there’s a very good chance we’re going to end up with a deal and so we’re giving it five days and then we’re going to see where that takes us.”
President Trump, who has a pattern of trying to help President Putin, also eased sanctions on Russian oil, which prompted outrage among European lawmakers.
The European Commission insisted that pushing back the proposal to ban Russian oil does not mean policy has changed.
