00:00The national average for a gallon of gas is now $4.17. That's not great. That figure is the highest
00:07it's been since the start of the war in Iran. Some relief may be coming, though, after the
00:12United Arab Emirates made the shocking announcement that it would leave OPEC. If you're not totally up
00:17to speed on the ins and outs of global supply and demand, in the simplest terms, OPEC is a
00:21consortium of oil-producing countries which controls the supply of oil. One expert said
00:27the UAE backing out of the group could mean the Arab nation might soon ramp up its own
00:31production, bringing the cost of oil down $5 to $10 a barrel. That would then trickle down
00:36through the system and potentially cut gas prices up to $0.40 a gallon. But, and this is a big
00:42but, how long it takes for that to happen directly depends on how long the war continues in Iran
00:47and how long the Strait of Hormuz remains closed. And while the waterway is still largely blocked,
00:53two news-making vessels managed to get through over the past few days. One is a $500 million
00:58super yacht owned by a key ally of Vladimir Putin. And the other is a large natural gas tanker that
01:05left the UAE bound for China. But with typical daily traffic and 135 vessels before the war,
01:10the real question here is, what the heck is going on with negotiations to end this thing?
01:16The Post's political reporter, Ryan King, filled me in.
01:19Yeah, so talks right now between the US and Iran still appear to largely be in a bit of a
01:24deadlock.
01:25The Trump administration has basically maintained that they've struggled to get clear answers out
01:31of Iran on some of the key issues. They basically argued that there's infighting in Iran. So they're
01:37getting mixed messaging from Iran in terms of what a potential deal to reopen Strait of Hormuz and
01:44officially end the war in Iran would look like. Now, on Tuesday morning, President Trump said that
01:51Iran, top Iranian officials have privately been telling him that the country is on the brink of
01:57collapse and that they are desperate to get the Strait of Hormuz opened again. That's, of course,
02:04because of the blockades that Trump has put on Iranian vessels to block them from leaving the
02:11Strait of Hormuz basically to ramp up pressure on the Iranian regime. He's argued that this move
02:18basically threatens oil infrastructure in Iran as well, because Iran won't be able to relieve
02:26some of the oil from its pipelines and other infrastructure. But we've seen in the past that
02:33the president has said some things about where negotiations stand with Iran. And then Iran has said
02:39other things. So it's sort of difficult to tell. And again, top administration officials attribute
02:45that to a bit of a power struggle within the Iranian regime. So right now, we're not seeing any big
02:52movement. We did see the top Iranian foreign minister travel to Russia on Monday. But right now,
03:00there aren't any clear signs of a breakthrough being imminent just yet in terms of talks with Iran.
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