Oil prices jumped as markets reopened on Monday, following developments that threaten supplies from the world's biggest exporter, Saudi Arabia, which kept a key 1,200-km east-west pipeline closed throughout the weekend after it was damaged in drone strikes on Friday.
Hopes for a diplomatic breakthrough in the near term faded when Oman's foreign minister, Sayyid Badr Albusaidi, posted late Sunday that a regional meeting scheduled for Monday had been postponed "in the interests of consensus."
Iranian officials had said they would attend that gathering with Gulf Arab states to present an agreement with Oman on governing shipping routes through the Strait of Hormuz.
Iran's Fars news agency cited an Iranian foreign ministry official as saying that the Oman meeting was postponed at the request of some regional countries in a decision jointly made by Tehran and Muscat. The official said Iran would coordinate with Oman to determine a suitable date for holding the meeting.
