The Trump Administration of the US has revealed plans to extend the ceasefire with Iran following the Wednesday deadline, putting paid to warnings about renewed bombing raids on the nation if no deal was struck.
Elsewhere, the Albanese Government has succeeded in locking down another 200 million litres of diesel through its new strategic reserve powers.
Ceasefire to be extended indefinitely
Trump has made the declaration on Truth Social on Tuesday. The reason cited was that Iran’s ruling regime was seriously fractured and required additional time to formulate an integrated plan towards ending the war.
In his capacity as commander in chief, the decision was made at the urging of Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and field marshal Asim Munir, who have been facilitating negotiations between Washington and Tehran.
The key difference here is that no deadline has been set for the ceasefire extension.
“Iran’s government must submit their plan to end the war before we know what the outcome will be,” Trump noted. “We will continue the naval blockade of Iran’s ports.”
A planned trip to Islamabad by Vice President JD Vance for a second round of peace talks was postponed after Iran did not confirm it would send a delegation.
The first round was a marathon 21 hour session on April 11, which ended without an agreement.
Meanwhile, Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi was quick to retaliate against the continued blockade, terming it an act of war and saying Washington had violated the ceasefire agreement.
Iran has always maintained that the Strait of Hormuz, which is crucial in international oil transit and was effectively closed down at the onset of the conflict, cannot be re opened due to intimidation from America.
Australia strengthens diesel supplies
The same conflict which Donald Trump wishes to stop diplomatically still exerts pressures on global oil market.
Australia is one such country which feels this pressure more than most other nations around the world.
This week, it was announced that Australia managed to secure 200 million litres of diesel under its newly acquired powers of strategic reserves recently granted by Parliament.
Together with the 100 million litres of diesel obtained last week from Brunei and South Korea.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said that the government was trying to protect the country’s citizens from the impact of the Middle East crisis.
The energy minister, Chris Bowen, confirmed that the diesel fuel would be allocated to industries and locations that were most in need.
So far, the government had already adopted several measures such as reducing the fuel excise by half for three months; cutting the minimum stock holding requirement in order to make around 762 million litres available.
Around 80% of Australia’s fuel requirements are met through imports, with the country using about 160 million liters per day.
The situation worsened with the incident of fire that broke out last week at one of the refineries belonging to Viva Energy in Geelong, which is one of the few refineries operational in the country, and produces about 10% of Australia’s overall fuel output.
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Since the truce extended by Trump will merely buy some time without guaranteeing anything, the fuel crisis looks set to continue for some time to come. For Australia, securing fuel supply will remain an exercise in firefighting.
