U.S. President Donald Trump said the U.S. blockade of Iranian ports could last for months, as the price of a barrel of oil increased to more than $126 a barrel, and peace talks between the U.S. and Iran remained stalled.

The Guardian reports that Trump told oil executives this week that the U.S. would “continue the current blockade for months if needed,” according to a White House official.

BBC News says that U.S. Central Command has prepared a plan for a wave of "short and powerful" strikes on Iran to try to break the deadlock in negotiations with Tehran, according to news site Axios, and that the U.S. military is set to brief President Donald Trump on new plans for potential action in the Iran war.

Meanwhile, Reuters reports that ship traffic through the Strait of Hormuz has averaged around seven vessels a day in recent days. The vessel traffic was mainly through Iranian waters, and included the Vast Plus chemical tanker, which is subject to U.S. sanctions, according to Kpler ship-tracking data and satellite analysis from SynMax, bit most of the ships were dry bulk carriers. 

The price of Brent crude futures surged more than 13% in 24 hours to April 29, reaching its highest price since the war began on February 28, and approaching the peaks seen in 2022, after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Oil later fell back to about $114 a barrel on April 30.

The situation is bringing increasing fears of a global recession, as a substantial proportion of oil, gas, fertilizer and other critical supplies has slowed to a trickle during the conflict. The economist Paul Krugman, a former New York Times columnist, said he believed most analysts had been “far too sanguine” about the effects of a prolonged Hormuz crisis.

“In my view, a full-on global recession is more likely than not if the strait remains closed for, say, another three months, which seems all too possible,” he wrote on his Substack on April 20.