Stephen Carroll

Iran has said it hopes to elect a new supreme leader within the next few days, according to a foreign ministry spokesman who spoke to NPR today.

The death of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran's supreme leader, has thrown the country's future leadership into question.

Khamenei did not publicly designate a successor.

Wendy Sherman, former US Deputy Secretary of State, says Iran's regime will be extremely hard to dislodge.

Wendy Sherman's words came as it was reported that Trump has agreed to talk to Iran's new leadership.

The Atlantic quotes a conversation with the US President in which he said, they want to talk and I have agreed to talk without specifying who that might be.

Iran's National Security Chief posted on social media saying that Iran will not negotiate with the United States.

European gas prices have surged over fears of disruption to the transport of liquefied natural gas through the Strait of Hormuz off Iran's coast.

The Dutch TTF benchmark is up by over 22% this morning.

UK prices are up by 26%.

Bloomberg's Tiwa Adebayo has more.

Oil prices have also surged as traders assess the effect of the conflict on supplies and transit links through the Strait of Hormuz.

Global benchmark Brent crude is about 8% higher this morning, above $78 a barrel after earlier rallying by as much as 13%, to the highest since January 2025.

Tanker traffic through the strait, which handles a fifth of the world's oil, has largely stopped.

Iranian authorities said yesterday that they had attacked three oil vessels, while President Trump said the US forces sank nine Iranian naval ships.

At their monthly meeting, OPEC Plus agreed to increase oil production by 206,000 barrels a day, only slightly higher than the pace they had agreed at previous meetings.

And travel chaos has extended through the Middle East and beyond, causing major disruption at some of the world's busiest airports.

Carriers across the Persian Gulf are extending an unprecedented flight suspension after Iran targeted airports over the weekend.

European airline stocks have plunged in trading today.

IAG, the British Airways owner, shares are down by over 6%.