Oil heads for weekly loss despite ongoing 'Iran tensions'

Oil prices fell on Friday, heading to end a two-week winning streak, despite rising at the close of the previous session after a report indicated that U.S. President Donald Trump is not keen on returning to the terms of the previous agreement with Iran.

The two major benchmarks are set to close the week lower, with Brent crude down 5.3 percent and West Texas Intermediate crude down 4.3 percent.

On Thursday, Washington said it was not holding talks with Iran, despite diplomatic efforts by other countries to bridge the gap between the two sides.

In a separate development, geopolitical tensions escalated after Moscow warned it might strike British military targets inside and outside Ukraine in response to Kyiv’s attacks on Russian territory using long-range cruise missiles supplied by Britain.

However, Trump stated that Russian President Vladimir Putin would not attack any NATO country, downplaying the significance of media reports that U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) Director John Ratcliffe warned Russian officials this week against launching such attacks. Britain is one of the founding members of NATO.