Iranian parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf warned Sunday that a U.S. blockade of Iranian ports would send oil prices sharply higher, arguing that current gasoline costs would look cheap in hindsight after President Donald Trump announced a maritime blockade set to begin Monday.
Blockade Set To Begin Monday Morning
U.S. Central Command said the blockade would start at 10 a.m. ET on April 13 and would apply to all maritime traffic entering or leaving Iranian ports, though ships bound for non-Iranian ports would still be allowed to transit the Strait of Hormuz.
Ghalibaf Trolls Rising Fuel Price Fears
Ghalibaf took to X and posted a screenshot of a map of Washington-area gasoline prices and wrote, “Enjoy the current pump figures. With the so-called ‘blockade’, Soon you’ll be nostalgic for $4–$5 gas.”
He also used the notation “ΔO_BSOH>0 ⇒ f(f(O))>f(O),” a kind of meme-math shorthand suggesting that an oil shock from blocking the strait would snowball rather than produce a one-time jump.
Talks Collapse As Gas Prices Climb
Ghalibaf’s post came after Trump said the United States would move to block ship traffic tied to Iran after Tehran failed to reopen the waterway fully. The escalation followed Vice President JD Vance’s warning that talks had failed and came after U.S. and Iranian negotiators left Islamabad without a deal on Tehran’s nuclear program and the Strait of Hormuz.
Trump also said the Islamabad talks ran close to 20 hours, that many items were settled even though the main dispute remained unresolved, and identified Abbas Araghchi, Ali Bagheri and Ghalibaf as key Iranian participants.
The AAA listed the U.S. national average for regular gasoline at $4.125 a gallon as of April 12, with California at $5.894 and Washington at $5.390, while Oregon and Nevada stood just under $5.
Ghalibaf’s jab also arrives as Reuters separately reported on Sunday that Trump has personally acknowledged that gas prices could stay the “same, or maybe a little bit higher” through the November midterms.
Photo Courtesy: shine.graphics on Shutterstock.com
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