U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer is “fed up” with higher gas prices on account of the actions of world leaders like U.S. President Donald Trump, he said in a recent interview.
Iran’s closure of the Strait of Hormuz has had global oil markets jittery, with the worth of Brent crude oil – the international benchmark – rising to US$96.96 a barrel on Friday.
This has caused an energy crisis for Britain and far of Europe, and families within the U.K. are feeling the pinch, Starmer said.
The crisis in Iran has outlined the necessity for “energy independence,” Starmer said.
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“The one solution to get energy independence is to go much more quickly to renewables because we’re not going to get it on the international market,” he said.
The Iran war has emerged as a fissure between the U.S. and its European allies, particularly Spain.
While the EU, including Spain, welcomed the ceasefire announced earlier this week, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez criticized the U.S.
“The Spanish government won’t applaud those that set the world on fire simply because they turn up with a bucket,” Sanchez wrote on his X account.
The Strait of Hormuz remained closed and Israel launched fresh attacks on Lebanon on Friday, which america and Iran each flagged as violations of their ceasefire deal on the eve of their first peace talks over the war.
U.S. Vice-President JD Vance, who will lead the U.S. delegation, set off for the talks in Pakistan, saying he expected a positive end result, but “in the event that they’re going to attempt to play us, then they’re going to seek out the negotiating team shouldn’t be that receptive.”
The 2-day-old ceasefire has halted the campaign of U.S. and Israeli air strikes on Iran. However it has up to now done nothing to finish the blockade of the strait, which has caused the biggest-ever disruption to global energy supplies, or to calm a parallel war waged by Israel against Iran’s Hezbollah allies in Lebanon.
— with files from Reuters
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