Tehran has not received any fresh US proposal - Reuters

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said on Thursday he supports negotiations and peace, but not under coercion.

“We will negotiate with strength and dignity, not under a gun to our head,” he told political activists in Kermanshah, adding that Iran will not compromise on its core beliefs.

Oil prices fell sharply on Thursday following remarks by US President Donald Trump suggesting a nuclear deal with Iran may be near, but analysts say any boost to global oil supply would likely belimited, according to a Bloomberg analysis.

Speaking in Qatar, Trump said “we’re getting close to maybe doing a deal” with Tehran. Brent crude dropped as much as 4% on the news, amid reports that an agreement could ease sanctions and increase Iranian oil exports.

However, analysts quoted by Bloomber said that Iran has limited spare capacity—estimated between 300,000 and 400,000 barrels per day—equivalent to about 0.3%–0.4% of global demand.

“Let’s just assume all sanctions were going to be lifted, the actual volume coming back to the market is not going to be that much,” said Amrita Sen of Energy Aspects.

Iran’s output was 3.4 million barrels a day in April, with capacity capped around 3.8 million, according to the International Energy Agency. The IEA also said that global inventories are set to rise, signaling an oversupplied market regardless of Iranian flows.

While much of Iran’s crude is already reaching markets through shadow fleets, tighter US sanctions could push exports below 1 million barrels per day, Bloomberg added.

Cécile Kohler and her partner Jacques Paris have been held in Iran since May 2022 on espionage charges that Paris has strongly denied.

French authorities accuse Tehran of subjecting the couple to conditions akin to torture in Tehran’s Evin prison and failing to provide consular access.

“I can confirm that France will bring a case before the International Court of Justice tomorrow,” said foreign ministry spokesperson Christophe Lemoine.

Iranian state television previously broadcast videos of the two appearing to confess, but France has denounced the footage as the result of forced confessions.

Earlier in the month, French President Emmanuel Macron has referred to the couple as “hostages” and vowed to secure their release, as France and other EU states accuse Iran of engaging in “hostage diplomacy” by detaining foreign nationals to extract political concessions.

An unknown number of international citizens are being held by Tehran, including Europeans.

In January, the European Parliament adopted a motion for a resolution condemning Iran’s detention of European Union citizens, labelling the practice as “hostage diplomacy.”

Iran has denied mistreatment or political motives in the detentions, although reports by rights groups such as Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International have documented the practice extensively, including the use of forced confessions.

A senior commander of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said on Thursday that the United States is too weakened to confront Iran militarily or defeat regional groups such as Hamas.

Speaking at a memorial ceremony in eastern Iran, IRGC Deputy Commander Brigadier General Ali Fadavi accused Washington of decades of failure in the region.

“The United States could not even eliminate a small group like Hamas,” he said. “Its inability is now clear to the whole world.”

Fadavi also blamed the US for fueling regional conflicts, saying that the Islamic State (ISIS) originated “from within America” and was defeated by Iran-backed forces in Syria and Iraq.

The head of Iran’s paramilitary Basij organization, Brigadier General Gholamreza Soleimani, has dismissed remarks by former US President Donald Trump during his Middle East visit, calling them “nonsense aimed at demoralizing the Iranian people.”

“A man has come from the other side of the world to speak in Arab countries. Who can deny the capabilities and resources of the Iranian nation?” Soleimani said on Thursday.

“These absurd comments are meant to discourage our people. We must instead inject hope with such programs,” he added.