US oil prices jump 5% on ceasefire concerns: Live updates

West Texas Intermediate – the US standard for oil – has spiked by 5% since markets opened, amid concerns that the fragile ceasefire between the US and Iran may not hold.

Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu said today that Israel would keep hitting Iran-backed Hezbollah ‘wherever necessary’, the day after Israeli strikes pummelled Lebanon.

‘We are continuing to strike Hezbollah with force, precision, and determination,’ Netanyahu said on his personal X account.

‘Our message is clear: anyone who acts against Israeli civilians – we will strike them. We will continue to hit Hezbollah wherever necessary, until we fully restore security to the residents of the north’ of Israel, he added.

EU leaders have roundly condemned suggestions of a toll being implemented for vessels seeking to navigate through the Strait of Hormuz.

The EU said that freedom of navigation in the waterway must be ensured with ‘no payment or toll whatsoever’, after Iran suggested it could charge for letting ships pass.

‘International law provides for the freedom of navigation, which means… basically no payment or toll whatsoever,’ European Commission spokesman Anouar El Anouni said. ‘Freedom of navigation is a public good and needs to be ensured.’

Yesterday Donald Trump called a US-Iran deal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz a ‘joint venture’ as Tehran prepares to charge ships up to $1 million per vessel to pass.

Iran’s nuclear chief has today ruled out any restrictions on the nation’s enrichment programme.

The Israeli government has lambasted Europe for ‘standing by the sidelines’ amid the Middle East conflict.

It wrote: ‘This is how it always is in Europe: they stand on the sidelines. Keep their distance. At times they offer disclaimers or condemnations.

‘Yet they always benefit from the results.’

Defence secretary John Healey said today it is not in ‘Britain’s national interest’ to deploy a large amount of the UK’s military assets to the Middle East.

He said: ‘When a crisis erupts nosily and dangerously, as it has done in the Middle East, I understand people are questioning why all UK military assets and personnel have not been deployed to deal with it.

‘But that is not in Britain’s national interest.’

Healey said, instead, that the ‘greatest threats are often unseen and silent’, adding that the UK has to ‘deploy our resources to best effect’ as demands on defence rise.

The CEO of Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) has called for Iran to open the Strait of Hormuz ‘unconditionally’ and without any ‘strings attaches.’

Sultan Al Jaber said in a post to his LinkedIn: ‘Iran has made clear – through both its statements and actions – that passage is subject to permission, conditions and political leverage. That is not freedom of navigation. That is coercion.

He said the waterway is a ‘natural passage governed by the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, which guarantees transit as a matter of right; not a privilege to be granted, withheld or weaponised.’

He added: ‘The Strait must be open – fully, unconditionally and without restriction. Energy security and global economic stability depend on it. The weaponization of this vital waterway, in any form, cannot stand.’