Middle Eastern officials may stop supplying oil – AP

The disruption of crude exports due to the Israel-Hamas conflict has apparently been foreseen by Iraq’s prime minister.

According to reports, Mohammed Shia al-Sudani, the prime minister of Iraq, has cautioned that if the conflict between Israel and Hamas intensifies to the point of including other nations in the region, supplies of Middle Eastern oil to global markets may be affected.

According to al-Sudani, the conflict will “impact global security, escalate regional conflict, jeopardise energy supplies, exacerbate economic crises, and invite further conflicts,” he said on Saturday at a peace summit in Cairo, as reported by the Associated Press.

Al-Sudani demanded a prisoner exchange and an urgent cease-fire to put an end to the carnage. While Israel was attacking Gaza, he pushed against removing civilians, claiming that “the Palestinians have no other place but their land.”

According to the prime minister, if UN Security Council resolutions condemning Israel’s settlement practises in Palestinian territory had been upheld, the situation may have been avoided. Israel did, however, demolish its settlements in Gaza in 2005.

Since 2006, when Hamas seized control of Gaza, no new elections have been held there.

The warning from Al-Sudani comes amid worries that Middle Eastern nations would stop exporting oil to the West in retaliation for a probable Israeli ground offensive in Gaza. Energy markets were shaken on Wednesday when Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian demanded that Muslim nations impose a “immediate and complete” oil embargo on Israel.

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Long lineups at petrol stations and a catastrophic economic impact were the results of the 1973 Arab oil embargo against the US and other nations that supported Israel. However, compared to the 1970s, when the Middle East accounted for around 85% of US oil imports, just about 12% did so in 2022.

The Israel-Hamas conflict could increase oil prices, “which is definitely bad news for inflation,” according to International Energy Agency executive director Fatih Birol, who also noted that the international oil markets remain unstable. The most adverse effects would be felt by developing nations that depend on imported petroleum and oil products, he claimed.

Brent crude, a significant worldwide oil benchmark, is currently trading at about $93 per barrel, up from $85 prior to October 7, when Hamas gunmen massacred hundreds of Israeli people and kidnapped hundreds more.

Iran is the eighth-largest oil producer in the world and supports Hamas. Tehran has the ability to seriously disrupt markets even in the absence of backing from other key exporters for an embargo. The Strait of Hormuz, which links the Persian Gulf to the Gulf of Oman and the Arabian Sea, is traversed by around one-third of all seaborne oil exports worldwide.