The world is facing a “major energy and economic challenge” as oil prices have soared in the wake of the war in the Middle East, International Energy Agency chief Fatih Birol said Thursday.
“The world is facing the biggest energy crisis in history,” Birol said at a high-level meeting on the energy transition at IEA headquarters in Paris, adding that oil prices were “putting a lot of pressure in many countries”.
The IEA chief’s statement comes as the United States is pushing for a new international coalition to restart commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz as talks with Tehran stall, according to US news outlets.
The State Department sent an internal cable to US embassies calling on diplomats to convince governments around the world to join the “Maritime Freedom Construct,” a US-led bloc to share information, coordinate diplomatically, and enforce sanctions, the Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday.
Iran has sought to extract a price for being attacked by exerting control over the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow waterway through which one-fifth of global oil typically transits.
As oil prices remain elevated for weeks, Trump has called on allies to unblock the strait, saying last month that “this should have always been a team effort.”
A senior Trump administration official confirmed to the Journal that the idea was one of the many diplomatic and policy resources at the president’s disposal. (AFP)
