The figures in this article is staggering. I’m quite surprised. If it’s true that Arab oil exports are higher then pre-war levels, and Iranian exports are dead in the water: Iran is done for. Maybe not in the next weeks, maybe not in the next months, but eventually. I do not see how their economy can survive and thrive without sigbificant exports. And the regime, for all it’s brutality, is likely to get toppled if people have no prospects.

I do not see any way Iran can escalate militarily: they seem spent.

Can they export oil by land or the Caspiam Sea? Can they go full «North Korea» and just hunker down?

I don’t know, but I do know they are no longer a big player in the ME if they can’t find a way to get out of this mousetrap.

Ps! I’m definetely not buying oil stocks. Price will go down if this keeps up. Slowly, but surely.

A new wave of attacks on vessels around the Strait of Hormuz is threatening a recovery in Middle Eastern oil exports—just as Gulf producers have pushed crude shipments back toward prewar levels.

The swift rebound in shipments in recent weeks has been driven by U.S. naval protection and earlier waves of strikes that knocked out Iranian radar and communications along the contested strait. The United Arab Emirates and other producers have set up an elaborate system of shuttle runs in which tankers load inside the Persian Gulf, exit Hormuz and transfer the crude to vessels waiting outside the waterway.

But after several days without reported attacks on ships toward the end of last month, the U.K. Maritime Trade Operations, which is affiliated with the Royal Navy, has reported seven strikes on vessels around the waterway since Sept. 28. On Sunday, it reported another strike, but didn’t specify when the incident happened.

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps navy issued a warning to ships planning to use the U.S.-backed route through the strait on Saturday, saying that they would be targeted and destroyed. “Don’t trust U.S. Navy and don’t use south corridor at all and don’t put your life in danger,” a radio message transmitted on a public shipping channel and reviewed by The Wall Street Journal said.

The renewed attacks may already be taking a toll, with early signs that oil flows are beginning to slow, analysts say. Firm data comes with a lag, because many ships are operating without their transponders switched on to avoid becoming targets.

All seven vessels were attacked near the narrowest part of the Hormuz strait, according to UKMTO.

Iran’s ability to target ships has also improved in recent weeks, adding to the risks in the strait, according to a U.S. official. The U.S. several weeks ago said it would strike Iranian oil tankers in response to Tehran’s attacks, but it has since backed off that effort after Iran unleashed a wave of missiles at a U.S. air base in Jordan, the official said.

Among the seven vessels attacked in the past week, at least four had completed two or more roundtrips in and out of the Strait of Hormuz since June, carrying crude oil or oil products, according to ship tracker Kpler.

Al Funtas, a so-called very large crude carrier operated by Kuwait Oil Tanker Company, was completing its fifth shuttle run between the Port of Mina Al-Ahmadi in Kuwait and ports in the Gulf of Oman when it was attacked on Sept. 28, according to Kpler. Kazimah III, another VLCC operated by KOTC, had carried out three shuttle runs and was on its way into the Persian Gulf when it was hit on Oct. 1.

Kpler said regional crude exports excluding Iran averaged at least 16.5 million barrels a day from Sept. 1 through Sept. 28, close to prewar levels.

But there are signs Iran’s recent attacks may already be starting to slow that recovery.

Rory Johnston, founder of oil research firm Commodity Context, said he has seen a potential pullback in recent days and estimates that flows are down by two million to three million barrels a day, though those initial totals could be revised higher as better information becomes available.

Saudi Arabia had shifted exports back through Hormuz after a Sept. 10 attack on its East-West pipeline and attacks on its ships by Yemen’s Houthi militants interrupted Red Sea shipments. The pipeline remains below capacity, but renewed loading at the Yanbu port on the Red Sea could help offset another Hormuz slowdown, Hussain said.

Standard Chartered estimates that total Saudi exports rebounded to 6.9 million barrels a day in September from 2.45 million in August.

But restored volumes don’t mean a return to normal.

In September, most of the crude that crossed the Strait of Hormuz went via tankers transferring their oil to ships waiting off the coast of the U.A.E. and Oman, according to Kpler.

The costs of such shuttle runs and military-protected convoys may not be sustainable, wrote Kim Fustier, senior global oil and gas analyst at HSBC. Meanwhile, margins for diesel and other refined products remain high.

The first US-bound shipment of Belarusian potash in four years is expected to arrive at a New Orleans port within weeks as Washington pursues a diplomatic opening with Minsk.

The Belarusian Potash Company loaded 30,000 tonnes of granular muriate of potash (MOP) on to a Marshall Islands-owned ship at Russia’s Bronka port in St Petersburg on September 15, according to pricing agency Argus.

It is expected to offload at a port in New Orleans, Louisiana, on October 14, according to ship-tracking data from commodities platform Kpler.

The shipment is the first to be sent to the US since Washington began to ease sanctions on the Belarusian potash industry in December last year as part of a wider deal to secure the release of political prisoners.

The US imposed sanctions on the country’s potash industry, one of its principal exports, in 2021 after President Alexander Lukashenko violently cracked down on pro-democracy protests the previous year.

Between 2017 and 2021, an average of 635,000 tonnes of potash were exported from Belarus to the US, according to Argus.

Potash is commonly used as a fertiliser that adds potassium to the soil and boosts crop yields.

Global availability of fertiliser has become increasingly short as a result of the Middle East conflict, which has all but closed the Strait of Hormuz.

While an increasing number of oil tankers have been shuttling through the waterway, incentivised by record-breaking freight rates, margins on other commodities are not enough to offset the potential risk of being hit by Iran.

Gulf countries are major producers of nitrogen-based fertiliser as well as urea and phosphates.

In September, Donald Trump said that the US was working on a “massive deal” to buy the fertiliser from Belarus in a post on social media.

Trump claimed that the imports would cost “substantially less” than the US is paying to Canada, which is locked in a stand-off with Washington over trade. Canada accounts for almost 80 per cent of US potash imports.

“This shipment serves a few purposes: it acts as a political gesture amid trade tensions between the US and Canada,” said Katsiaryna Shmatsina, Eurasia fellow with the Lawfare Institute. “On the Belarusian side, Minsk is heavily motivated to seize this opening with a major global power.”

Analysts remain sceptical that Belarus can rapidly scale up its exports to the US in the near future or compete with Canadian prices.

“The main rationale behind Trump’s big potash deal is calming down the base ahead of the midterms as well as calming down the Belarusians,” said Balázs Jarábik, partner at the analysis firm R Politik, noting that Minsk has been frustrated that Belarusian businesses were struggling to re-enter the global market after the US lifted sanctions.

EU sanctions prohibit Belarus from using Lithuania’s Klaipėda port, the fastest route to sea, forcing shipments to take a more expensive and circuitous route from Russia.

Lukashenko has also noted that all of Belarus’s potash has been contracted for 2026.

The shipment of Belarusian potash represents a fraction of the 5.6mn tonnes of potash imported by the US last year. But it is the latest sign of a cautious thaw in ties between the US and Belarus, which has been internationally isolated over its violent suppression of dissent and role in enabling Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

Trump’s special envoy for Belarus John Coale has made multiple trips to the country, securing the release of hundreds of political prisoners in exchange for sanctions relief.

Coale was recently nominated to serve as Trump’s special presidential envoy for hostage affairs. In an interview with the FT, he said that he was in early talks about brokering a deal between Russia and Ukraine on the release of civilian prisoners.

Lukashenko has long played Russia and the west off against each other, but analysts have noted that the prospects of drawing Minsk out of Moscow’s orbit are low.

The Trump administration’s talks with Russia about ending the war in Ukraine have expanded to include a multibillion-dollar oil deal that would benefit Middle Eastern business executives with ties to the two main U.S. negotiators, Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner.

The deal, which is contingent on approval from the U.S. government and the Kremlin, is for a sprawling set of oil fields, refineries and gas stations around the world owned by Lukoil, one of Russia’s biggest energy companies.

The leading group seeking the deal includes an American investor, Todd Boehly, who has donated $2 million to President Trump’s political causes; two Middle Eastern groups that have done business with Mr. Kushner or Mr. Witkoff’s family; and an arm of the U.S. government itself.

The monthslong negotiations, which were described by eight people familiar with them, shed new light on Mr. Trump’s latest approach to settling a four-year war that has killed hundreds of thousands. The people spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the negotiations.

There is no indication that Mr. Kushner or Mr. Witkoff themselves stand to profit. But the pending deal represents a striking intermingling of personal business ties with geopolitics, even for an administration that has regularly dismissed concerns about potential conflicts of interest.

President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia brought up the deal when he met with Mr. Witkoff and Mr. Kushner at the Kremlin on Sept. 5, according to three people familiar with the meeting. Mr. Putin proposed it get done as a way of showing Russians that they can do business with the United States, according to one of the people.

The Americans responded that they would work on it, the person said, seeing it as a way to build good will with the Kremlin while also lowering global energy prices. But the deal is also a lucrative one for the buyers: U.S. approval for the sale would release the assets from American sanctions, instantly increasing their value.

In Moscow, the decision on the deal is widely seen as Mr. Putin’s to make, even though Lukoil is technically a private company. The upshot is that the giant transaction, involving assets as varied as oil fields in Cameroon, refineries in Europe and gas stations in New Jersey, comes down to Mr. Putin and Mr. Trump.

Mr. Trump has been promoting the promise of business deals with Russia since early last year, describing the country as a “tremendous opportunity.” The deal again brings Mr. Trump’s World Liberty Financial cryptocurrency company — co-founded by Mr. Witkoff — into focus. One of the investors in the Lukoil deal is a part owner of World Liberty.

Mr. Witkoff and Mr. Kushner, who have traveled repeatedly to Russia for meetings with Mr. Putin, have argued that the potential to rebuild economic ties with the West could convince the Russian president to compromise in Ukraine. The administration has recently signaled it is open to deals with Russia even before the war ends, as a way of showing it is serious about resetting the United States’ relationship with Moscow.

The Lukoil sale, people familiar with the matter say, is one of those deals.

In a statement, a senior administration official confirmed that Mr. Witkoff and Mr. Kushner played a direct role in helping negotiate the financial terms of the investment by the federal government in the deal to ensure that it included “a substantial upfront payment and profits interest for the United States.”

A spokeswoman for Mr. Witkoff said that he “takes no salary and travels the world on his own plane, at his own expense, working on behalf of President Trump to negotiate peace and bring hostages home to their families.” She added that Mr. Witkoff “has no conflict of interest and no financial stake in this matter.”

Numerous potential bidders expressed interest in at least part of Lukoil’s international holdings when the assets went on the market last fall, including U.S. energy giants like Chevron.

The Washington private equity firm Carlyle reached a tentative agreement in January to buy a large share of the assets, after making the pitch that bringing Lukoil’s international portfolio under U.S. ownership would further the Trump administration’s goal of “energy dominance.”

But in recent months, as U.S. approval for Carlyle’s bid stalled, a different group emerged as the leading bidder: one led by Mr. Boehly, a billionaire supporter of Mr. Trump’s, alongside well-connected figures in the Middle East and the U.S. government itself. The members of the partnership were reported last week by The Financial Times.

Mr. Boehly is a co-owner of the Los Angeles Dodgers and donated $1 million to MAGA Inc., the Trump-aligned political committee, in December 2025. He gave another $1 million through his investment firm, Eldridge Industries, to Mr. Trump’s inauguration.

The U.S. government is taking a stake in the deal through the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation, an agency that invests in and lends to projects overseas. A D.F.C. official said in a statement that the potential Lukoil deal “would advance the Trump administration’s commitment to strengthen U.S. economic security, advance U.S. foreign policy and lower energy prices for everyday Americans.”

But it would not be an all-American purchase.

A major equity holder would be the Qatar-based conglomerate controlled by Moutaz Al-Khayyat and his brother Ramez Al-Khayyat, both of whom attended Mr. Trump’s inauguration in 2025 and have since formed a partnership with Mr. Kushner and his wife, Ivanka Trump, one of Mr. Trump’s daughters, to help finance a multibillion-dollar luxury hotel resort project in southern Albania.

Another major stakeholder would be an Abu Dhabi-based investment fund controlled by Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the United Arab Emirates’s top national security adviser, who controls another fund that purchased a large stake in the Trump family’s cryptocurrency company, World Liberty, run in part by Mr. Witkoff’s son.

Steve Witkoff was a co-founder of World Liberty, and Mr. Trump’s sons are also involved in the company, which generated $799 million for Mr. Trump last year, in part because of an additional cryptocurrency purchase worth $2 billion that Sheikh Tahnoon’s affiliate made in 2025. Mr. Witkoff himself has sold off his stake in World Liberty, a person close to him said.

Sheikh Tahnoon also helps oversee an Abu Dhabi investment fund called Lunate, which is among the largest stakeholders in the private equity firm Mr. Kushner set up after he left the White House at the end of Mr. Trump’s first term. This means Sheikh Tahnoon is effectively a business partner of Mr. Kushner’s as well.

Hui Chen, a former Justice Department prosecutor and a white collar crime and ethics adviser who served until the start of Mr. Trump’s first term, said the connections between Mr. Witkoff and Mr. Kushner to players in the Lukoil deal illustrated why friends and family members of Mr. Trump’s should not be top foreign policy advisers.

“This is an alarming and very concerning set of entanglements,” said Ms. Chen, who has also worked as a corporate compliance lawyer. “And it means you have to question how the Trump administration is evaluating the different bidders involved here. Are the personal interests involved going to wrongly influence the outcome?”

Lukoil’s international division, which is based in Austria, hired its own Washington-based consultant who is close to Mr. Trump, Bryan Lanza, who served as a senior adviser to Mr. Trump’s 2024 election campaign and now works at Mercury Public Affairs. He is no longer working for Lukoil, a person familiar with the matter said.

The deal is not yet final, and would need to be approved by the Treasury Department, which oversees sanctions enforcement.

But in the case of Lukoil, people involved said, the key decisions are being made at the White House. Asked about its approach to the Lukoil decision, a Treasury Department spokeswoman said that the agency’s Office of Foreign Assets Control “implements foreign policy as determined by the White House.”

The Sept. 5 meeting with Mr. Putin was the first time that Lukoil came up in the Russian president’s conversations with Mr. Witkoff and Mr. Kushner, one person familiar with the matter said.

But Kirill Dmitriev, Mr. Putin’s economic envoy, has been closely involved, people familiar with the sale process said. He traveled to New York and Washington for meetings last month, and told reporters that “dialogue” with the United States was “continuing across many areas, including energy.”

Lukoil’s refineries in the Netherlands, Bulgaria and Romania play an important role. They produce diesel and jet fuel, which have been in short supply since the start of the Iran war, which has driven up prices and given Mr. Trump an incentive to support a deal that could provide more access to energy.

Lukoil valued its international assets at $20 billion earlier this year, but the price and structure of the proposed deal are not clear.

An official with the D.F.C., the U.S. agency investing in the deal, described participation in the purchase as a way to strengthen the energy security of U.S. allies. The official also said the deal would produce significant profits for the American taxpayer and keep strategic infrastructure away from adversaries.

The Trump administration imposed sanctions on Lukoil a year ago, describing the move as new pressure on Mr. Putin to “stop the killing.” It also created a lucrative opportunity: Lukoil was forced to sell off its sprawling portfolio of international holdings.

Investors around the world scrambled to bid on the assets, but the U.S. government held veto power because it controlled how to enforce its sanctions. Because of Russia’s autocratic system, Mr. Putin was seen as the final decision maker in Moscow.

The bidding frenzy accelerated last November, when the Treasury Department rejected an initial offer by Gunvor, a Swiss-based energy trading company with past ties to Russia, which had moved to buy Lukoil’s foreign assets. The Treasury Department said in a statement that “as long as Putin continues the senseless killings, the Kremlin’s puppet, Gunvor, will never get a license to operation and profit.”

Carlyle secured a “nonexclusive” agreement in January with Lukoil to sell its international assets. It was up to the Treasury Department to then sign off on the deal. As months passed with no final deal, other bidders intensified their efforts to step in.

Mr. Boehly has little experience in the oil and gas industry. He has made most of his money through investment firms such as Guggenheim Partners and Eldridge Industries, as well as sports team and entertainment industry investments, including Bruce Springsteen’s music catalog.

But over the last several years, the billionaire Khayyat brothers, who were born in Syria before moving to Qatar during the Syrian civil war, have begun to amass a collection of oil industry assets and planned projects in Syria, Libya and Iraq.

Even while the Lukoil negotiations were underway, the Khayyats were continuing to work with Mr. Kushner and Ivanka Trump over plans to build the luxury resort in Albania, an effort that included a meeting involving Ramez Al-Khayyat and Ms. Trump earlier this year in Albania, The Times reported.

The decision over Lukoil’s fate has taken so long that the Treasury Department has had to repeatedly issue extensions to its sanctions action, so that Lukoil gas stations in the United States and other businesses around the world could continue to engage with other financial partners. The most recent extension lasts until Oct. 29.

Saudi Arabia and Yemeni government forces are planning a major counteroffensive against Iran-backed Houthis in the coming days — an effort to push them away from areas on the Red Sea coast that control the Strait of Bab al-Mandeb, two U.S. officials say.

For the second time in recent weeks, the U.S. rebuffed Saudi pleas to join the operation and conduct airstrikes. But U.S. officials say that could change if the operation runs into problems.

The Bab al-Mandeb Strait is a vital artery for global trade and Saudi oil exports. Control over it gives the Houthis and their Iranian backer a powerful new point of leverage over the U.S., its Gulf allies and the world economy.

In recent weeks, the Houthis took over key areas of the southern Red Sea coast that control the strait. They also increased missile and drone attacks against Saudi Arabia. The Saudis retaliated with airstrikes against Houthi targets.

A U.S. official said the Saudis have been planning the operation for weeks and that plans were approved by Saudi leadership several days ago.

The operation will include ground forces loyal to the internationally recognized government in Yemen with Saudi air cover.

On Thursday, Saudi Defense Minister Prince Khalid Bin Salman called Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to brief him on the planned operation and ask again for U.S. airstrikes against Houthi targets, the U.S. official said.

A U.S. official said that the U.S. "is not going to take kinetic action for now."

Last week, President Trump was close to ordering a strike on the Houthis after a request from Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS), but eventually decided to hold off.

Trump is caught between wanting to help his friend and ally MBS, and avoiding getting entangled in a new front in the Middle East.

The U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) also had serious reservations about launching strikes in Yemen and saw it as a distraction from its focus on Iran, a U.S. official said.

U.S. officials say the U.S. military is helping the Saudis with everything short of direct combat, mainly intelligence and targeting data.

One U.S. official said that in the last two weeks, the U.S. military provided the Saudis with more than 200 Houthi targets to strike. The official said the strikes significantly increased pressure on the Houthis.

Excerpt:

The co-pilot of the FlyDubai plane who allegedly attacked the plane's captain and attempted to crash a flight bound for Israel on Wednesday is an Omani national who was previously suspended from flying by Oman Air after being identified as a security risk, according to senior intelligence and law enforcement officials.

Sources told ABC News that the suspect, while working as a co-pilot trainee for Oman Air in 2024, was found to be in possession of extremist materials. The suspect was allowed to continue working for the airline in an administrative role, the sources said.

Officials investigating the incident are still trying to determine how the suspected attacker was subsequently permitted to fly for FlyDubai and how he ended up as the first officer in the cockpit of a plane headed for Israel, the sources said.

Article by Moroccan investigative outlet behind a paywall, translated French to English

The Desk was able to identify the Omani co-pilot suspected of trying to crash a flydubai plane. He previously presented himself as a senior pilot officer for Royal Air Maroc. The national airline claims that he only completed three months or theoretical training there, without ever flying. Exclusive details

On September 30, flydubai flight FZ1073, which left Dubai for Tel Aviv, was urgently diverted to Tabouk, in northwestern Saudi Arabia, after an attack in the cockpit. According to Israeli passengers and officials, the co-pilot stabbed the captain. Indian Smit Machchhar then tried to throw the plane to the ground. a plane lost approximately 17.400 feet in less than two minutes. Passengers overpowered him, and two reserve pilots on board regained control. No passengers were injured. The suspect, an Omani national, was arrested and then transferred from Saudi Arabia to the United Arab Emirates, where he is under investigation for terrorism. 

The Desk was able to trace his identity on the basis of consistent sources: he is Hamam Alhamami, of Omani nationality. The desk was also able to view and authenticate his since-deleted Linkedin profile. His journey agrees point by point with what the international press reports about the suspect. Based in Muscat, he presented himself as co-pilot on a Boeing 737. He claims 7 years at Oman Air from February 2018 to February 2025, including three as co-pilot from January 2022. Another line in this profile has not yet been documented.

EIGHT MONTHS IN CASABLANCA, ACCORDING TO HIS LINKEDIN

Between June 2025 and January 2026, Hamam Al Hammami declares having held the position of Senior First Officer, that is to say experienced co-pilot, at Royal Air Maroc. According to his LinkedIn profile, this would be a full-time, face-to-face job attached to the Casablanca base, for a period of eight months. This passage therefore ended less than a year ago. 

The timeline fits with that of his hiring in Dubai. An Israeli official told CNN that the suspect had only been with flydubai for eight months. Daily Israel Hayom talk about nine months. His arrival in the Emirati company would before date back to the beginning of 2026, just after his departure from RAM. 

THREE MONTHS OF TRAINING SPECIFIES THE RAM 

Questioned by The Desk, an authorized source from Royal Air Maroc categorically reframes this passage. According to the company, Hamam Al Hammami spent only three months there from September 22, 2025 to January 4, 2026, as part of theoretical training under the aegis of instructors, due to " its hour deficit ". He has never been at the controls of a RAM aircraft and has had no responsibility towards passengers, she assures. His departure could be explained by flydubai's more attractive offering due to the Emirates' proximity to his country of origin. 

This version contradicts that of the professional profile of the pilot, who displays eight months of presence and an experienced co-pilot title. The title of a position on Linkedln remains a statement of its holder and does not prove that he stole. 

A PILOT ALREADY DISMISSED IN MUSCAT 

The question of recruitment arises all the more acutely since the pilot was, according to several American media, already reported before his arrival in Morocco. According to the Wall Street Journal, Omani authorities had banned him from flying, fearing that he had adopted radical ideological views. According to ABC News, Oman Air identified him in 2024 as a security risk while he was training as a co-pilot, after the discovery of extremist content. The company then allegedly kept him in an administrative position. This version is compatible with the presence of Oman Air on its profile until February 2025. A Fox News source suggests, on the contrary that he would have settled in Dubai in 2024, which is contradicted by the chronology of his profile. 

The Wall Street Journal could not determine whether Muscat had shared its concerns with other countries or companies. In any case, RAM claims that it did not have this information at the time of welcoming him, just a few months after his sidelining in Oman. Benjamin Netanyahu, Israeli Prime Minister, says the suspect followed a " radical Islamist indoctrination ". The Emirati authorities refuse to make any comments so as not to prejudge the investigation which established that he had extremist materials. 

MAXIMUM SECURITY AND LOCKED COCKPITS

According to information from Desk, Royal Air Maroc had enlisted Al Hammami via a specialized agency as part of its support needs its development plan whose pace should reach around fifteen additional candidates per year. In this sense, the Royal Air School of Marrakech provides cohorts of around a hundred candidates per year, RAM adds the same number for a transitional period, most of them from international sources. 

The national company claims precautionary and safety criteria and rules on board and on the ground among the strictest in the sector "to say that a flydubai type incident is" formally unimaginable "on board his fleet. According to our sources, RAM has also implemented new safety procedures in its cockpits, presented internally as a response to a new form of threat ". The current composition of its technical crews, where foreign pilots are the majority, would be discussed in this context. However, no link has been established between this composition and the case of the suspect, who is of Omani nationality. 

Hamam Al Hammami has not, at this stage, been the subject of any public charges, and he remains presumed innocent. Flydubai, which did not wish to comment while the investigation is ongoing, has suspended its flights between Dubai and Tel Aviv. 

Five European countries agreed at an emergency meeting Thursday to respond with "one voice" to growing pressure from the U.S. government to release reserves of diesel, according to people familiar with the matter.

France, Germany, Britain, Italy, Ireland and the European Commission joined the talks to decide how to respond to pressure from Washington to draw down oil stockpiles or face a ban on U.S. exports of diesel, three European officials told POLITICO.

All these countries have been privately pressured by the U.S. to draw down on their reserves, two of the people said.

The countries, along with the EU's executive arm, agreed three things, according to the people: To react to the pressure with a "coordinated voice," to make sure that "every decision about releasing stocks should be elevated to the IEA [International Energy Agency] level," and to seek to "decrease the tension when speaking to the U.S."

The Paris-based IEA coordinates energy policy among rich countries, and oversaw a release of oil stocks earlier this year following the closure of the Strait of Hormuz.

The idea is to "de-escalate," one of the people said. "To be sort of assertive but positive in the communication ... When you're dealing with the hungry lion, you do not necessarily play dirty games with him."

A wider pool of countries, some of which have also faced pressure from the Trump administration, will discuss how to respond in a meeting on Friday, the person added.

POLITICO reported earlier that U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright was asking for oil releases as an alternative to imposing a ban on exports, on which the EU is heavily dependent. The requested release of 120 million barrels of diesel over six months would account for well over a third of the EU's total reserves of the essential transport fuel.

Diesel prices are soaring in the U.S. as a result of the wars in Ukraine and Iran, heaping pressure on U.S. President Donald Trump to bring down prices ahead of critical mid-term elections. The U.S. is a major diesel exporter, and currently provides more than half of the EU's imports — meaning a ban would have serious implications for the European economy.

Trump has refused to rule out an export ban despite vociferous opposition from the U.S. oil sector. “I’m thinking about it,” Trump said of the export ban at an Oval Office event. “I speak to [Energy Secretary] Chris [Wright] and [Interior Secretary] Doug [Burgum] about it a lot — they sort of think it’ll help diesel, but it might raise the price of other things.”

Polish Finance and Economy Minister Andrzej Domański clashed with Russian Economic Development Minister Maksim Reshetnikov at a G20 trade ministers’ meeting in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on Thursday. 

The exchange came after Reshetnikov accused the European Union of hypocrisy over its measures targeting Russia’s merchant fleet and alleged that Ukraine had initiated aggressive actions in the Black Sea against civilian vessels.  

Domański pushed back, saying Russia was attempting to distort fundamental facts about the war.