Good news for global shipping, as the crisis in the Red Sea is finally subsiding. Elsewhere, sanctions on Syria have been suspended by the US and those on Russian oil are putting upward pressure on prices, just as a major report expects demand to rise.
Houthis halt Red Sea attacks
The Houthi militant rebel group has stated that it is ceasing attacks on ships in the Red Sea as a result of the ceasefire in Gaza.
AP News reports that the Yemeni group has issued a letter to Hamas, with which it is allied, declaring that they are suspending operations against Israel and shipping in the Red Sea more broadly.
The letter warns that the group will “reinstate the ban on Israeli navigation in the Red and Arabian Seas” should “the enemy resume its aggression against Gaza”. It has not claimed an attack in the region since the beginning of the Israel-Hamas ceasefire on 10 October.
US suspends Syria sanctions
The US has announced a suspension of some sanctions on Syria following President Donald Trump’s meeting with his Syrian counterpart, Ahmed al-Sharaa, at the White House on Monday (10 November).
The White House has said the partial relief “gives the Syrian people a chance at greatness”. It adds that the change “supports Syria’s efforts to rebuild its economy, restore ties with foreign partners, and foster prosperity and peace”.
In practice, this makes permissible “the transfer of most basic civilian use US-origin goods, as well as software and technology, to or within Syria” without a licence. The announcement addressed and repealed most aspects of the 2019 ‘Caesar Syria Civilian Protection Act’, imposed on Syria during Trump’s first term in response to what the US said was former President Bashar Al-Assad’s regime of “violence and destruction that has killed hundreds of thousands of civilians”.
The declaration explicitly excludes “certain transactions involving the governments of Russia and Iran, or the transfer of provisions of Russian-origin or Iranian-origin goods, technology, software, funds, financing or services”.
Oil demand snapshot
The world’s thirst for oil appears unlikely to stop growing, according to the International Energy Agency’s (IEA) latest report. The World Energy Outlook 2025 finds that global demand for oil and gas could continue growing until 2050, marking a stark change from predictions released while Joe Biden was US president, when the IEA said it expected oil demand to peak before 2030.
The US’ sanctions on two major Russian oil companies, Rosneft and Lukoil, are putting upward pressure on the price of oil, meanwhile, with Russian president Vladimir Putin hosting the president of Kazakhstan to discuss the fallout.
Putin is meeting President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev to talk both about the new sanctions and fresh gas projects, according to Reuters, and Tokayev’s recent discussions with the US appear likely to feature.
“If the president of Kazakhstan considers it necessary to inform our president about the content of the contacts he had in Washington, of course that will be extremely interesting for the Russian side,” Dmitry Peskov, Putin’s press secretary, said of the discussions.
All of this comes in the context of COP30, which has seen protests today and will be the subject of a Daily Update feature later in the week. You can already read our feature from earlier in the week on the UK’s energy, renewables drive and gas import reliance.
Elsewhere in the headlines
· General Motors has demanded thousands of suppliers pull parts of their supply chains based in China out of the country
· Trump has said that he has an “obligation” to sue the BBC for US$1bn over its editing of footage of him, should it fail to apologise and issue a formal retraction
· The US House of Representatives will vote on a deal to end the country’s government shutdown
Yesterday in trade
· The UK rejected a request for €6.75bn to participate in the EU’s new defence fund
· The BBC-Trump controversy increased in intensity ahead of UK-US trade talks
· Switzerland and the US appeared likely to strike a deal to reduce US tariffs
You can read more about those stories here.
