Iran's president said on 2 November that The Supreme Leader had given his government authority to seek a way out through dialogue. The same day Iran's Hormuz permit agency nearly doubled its blacklist to 240 ships, 72 of them from Gulf state fleets, Qatar's among them. Spot Brent fell almost $13 between Friday's and Monday's closes. Turkey ratified the Mecca defence pact, and falling debris damaged Aramco's Riyadh tower.
Iran is raising the price of a deal, and Brent's fall suggests the market expects one anyway.
Masoud Pezeshkian said on 2 November that the Supreme Leader had given his government room to seek a way out through dialogue. The same day Iran's Hormuz permit agency blacklisted 114 more ships, Qatar's state carriers among them.
United Kingdom×2IranIran's Hormuz permit agency added 114 ships to its blacklist on 2 November, taking it to 240. The list now names vessels of Qatar's Nakilat and QatarEnergy. That same day President Masoud Pezeshkian said The Supreme Leader had let his government seek a deal through dialogue.
Qatar carries Tehran's messages to Washington, yet its own state fleets now face fines or seizure. Tehran opened talks and squeezed its mediator in the same week.
Saudi Arabia's own energy ministry reported shrapnel damage to Aramco's Riyadh headquarters tower on 8 November. A day earlier, Yemen's Houthi-run health ministry said a strike near Sanaa killed at least 33 people.
United KingdomFalling shrapnel damaged Saudi Aramco's tower in Riyadh on Sunday 8 November, with no injuries reported. A day earlier a strike near Sanaa killed at least 33 people, Yemen's Houthi-run health ministry said.
In October Riyadh stayed silent on Houthi claims of hits. This time its own energy ministry confirmed the damage, a sign the attacks now reach the capital's business heart.
UKMTO logged at least 11 ships attacked around Hormuz in the week to 6 November, and three of them sank. Nobody has named the attackers or the wrecks.
QatarAt least 11 merchant ships came under attack near the strait of Hormuz in the week to 6 November. Three of them sank, by the count of Britain's naval trade office. Two projectiles then hit Iran's Qeshm Island that Friday night.
The International Maritime Organization counted three sinkings in the whole war by mid-October. One week has now matched that tally, though no wreck has a name yet.
Turkey's parliament approved the Mecca Joint Defence Agreement with Saudi Arabia and Pakistan late on 5 November. Government and opposition voted for it together.
Turkey's parliament approved the Mecca defence pact with Saudi Arabia and Pakistan late on Thursday 5 November, by 279 votes to 119. Both the ruling Justice and Development Party and the opposition Republican People's Party backed it.
The three states invoked the pact a month before Ankara ratified it. No motion to send Turkish troops to Saudi Arabia has been tabled yet, so the vote binds Turkey on paper first.
The US Treasury designated four people and ten entities it says sold false flag registrations and fake certificates to Iran's shadow fleet. Eight of the entities are in India.
The US Treasury sanctioned four people and ten companies on 4 November, eight of them in India. It alleges a Chandigarh group sold fake ship registrations to tankers in Iran's shadow fleet.
The move hits paperwork, not ships, since Treasury named no vessels. India meanwhile imported a record 5.6 million barrels of crude a day in October, provisional Kpler data show.
Spot Brent closed at $107.39 on 2 November, down from $120.15 on the previous trading day. Futures had their worst day since July.
United StatesSpot Brent closed at $107.39 a barrel on Monday 2 November, down from $120.15 the previous Friday, US government data show. Brent futures dropped 7.6% that day, their sharpest daily slide since July.
Traders bet on the Doha talks, not on tankers. Ships were still being hit near Hormuz, and spot stayed about $2.60 above futures because cargoes ready now remain scarce.
Nineveh's governor cancelled three Mosul airport contracts on 7 November over alleged links to armed groups, after talks with Iraq's prime minister. A week earlier Washington had quietly extended the wind-down of a Baghdad bank it sanctioned.
United Arab EmiratesNineveh's governor cancelled three contracts at Mosul's airport on Saturday 7 November, citing alleged links to armed groups. He acted after meeting Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi in Baghdad.
Washington, meanwhile, gave firms until 1 December to unwind dealings with a sanctioned Iraqi bank. Baghdad is chipping at the militias' business while the dollar squeeze on its banks goes on.
Washington designated eight currency exchangers in British Columbia, Ontario and Quebec on 6 November, alleging they swapped rials for crypto and dealt with IRGC-linked wallets. Treasury says they are still trading.
The US Treasury sanctioned eight currency exchange shops in Canada on 6 November, among them Million Exchange and Farah Exchange. It alleges they swapped Iranian rials for crypto and dealt with wallets linked to Iran's Revolutionary Guards.
Washington acted with FINTRAC (Canada's financial intelligence unit). Only Ottawa can close the shops, and Treasury says some already trade under new names.
The State Department sanctioned three targets it says helped Iran seek shoulder-fired air defence missiles from China-based suppliers. Only one of the three names is new to the US sanctions list.
United Arab EmiratesThe US State Department sanctioned three targets on 5 November over an alleged Iranian bid for hundreds of shoulder-fired missiles from Chinese suppliers. They are Mohammed Ali Tolibov, Russia-based Alisher Domullodzhanov and Nigeria's Vanguard Tactical Supply.
Washington had already sanctioned Tolibov and Vanguard. The Chinese companies State says supplied the weapons were not sanctioned at all.
Amirhossein Maleki and Amirhossein Ebrahimi, arrested in January's protests in Malekshahr, were hanged at Isfahan Central Prison on 3 November, the rights group Hengaw reported.
IranIran hanged two 20-year-old men, Amirhossein Maleki and Amirhossein Ebrahimi, in Isfahan on Tuesday 3 November. Both were arrested during January's protests and convicted over the deaths of four security personnel.
The rights group Hengaw says Ebrahimi, a medical student, was tortured into confessing. By its count, nine of the 12 people sentenced to death in the case have now been hanged.
Britain's fiscal watchdog built John Healey's Budget on oil averaging $82 a barrel across 2026 and 2027. On Budget day, 28 October, Brent spot closed at $119.20.
Britain's fiscal watchdog assumed oil would average $82 a barrel across 2026 and 2027, in the forecast published with John Healey's Budget on 28 October. Brent spot closed at $119.20 that day.
The Office for Budget Responsibility took prices from a window that closed on 19 August. Its own worse case adds up to £17bn to borrowing in 2027-28.
Sideways, with talks and attacks running in parallel. At sea, UKMTO counted at least 11 ships attacked in the week to 6 November, against the IMO's 29 for 1 to 22 October; on land, the Saudi-Houthi exchange reached Riyadh's King Abdullah Financial District on 8 November 2026. The tipping points are named: the PGSA enforcing its threatened "fines, detention, or confiscation" against a listed Gulf state ship, which would hit the mediator's own fleet, and a TBMM deployment motion that would put a NATO army in Saudi Arabia within Houthi missile range.
