🗞️ Could the Iran war be fought at the gas pumps? An InfoPod by Politica UK #oil #worldeconomics
Welcome to the Politica UK InfoPod. Today’s question is an unusual one, but it may capture the real economic battleground of the Iran war. Could this conflict ultimately be fought not only on land, at sea, or in the air — but at the gas pumps? Because in modern geopolitics, energy prices can be just as powerful as missiles. Over the past twenty-four hours global oil markets have surged sharply as the conflict between the United States, Israel, and Iran expands. Brent crude has climbed above one hundred dollars a barrel, with prices at times approaching one hundred and twenty dollars — levels not seen since the energy shock that followed Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Markets are reacting not simply to the fighting itself, but to something much larger: the risk that the war could disrupt global oil supply. At the centre of this concern lies one narrow waterway — the Strait of Hormuz. Roughly twenty percent of the world’s oil normally passes through this channel between Iran and the...