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LONDON: Oil prices slid towards \u200cthe psychological threshold of $100 a barrel and to their lowest in 11 days on Monday as investors hoped for diplomatic progress on the Iran war due to this week\u2019s UN meeting, and eyed a partial recovery in \u200bshipments from Saudi Arabia.<\/strong><\/p>\n Brent crude futures and US West Texas Intermediate crude touched \u200btheir lowest since September 10 earlier on Monday. The Brent contract for \u2060November was at $101.2 a barrel at 1137 GMT, down $2.66, or 2.6%.<\/span><\/p>\n The WTI October contract that \u200bis expiring on Tuesday fell $2.50, or 2.5%, to $97.80 a barrel. The November contract stood at $93.62.<\/span><\/p>\n Iran and \u200bthe US exchanged new threats on Sunday, although President Donald Trump said he would be open to meeting Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, who is expected to be in New York this week for the United Nations General \u200bAssembly.<\/span><\/p>\n Iran has conveyed its conditions to mediators for re-engaging in negotiations, Al Jazeera reported, citing Iran\u2019s security chief, \u200bMohsen Rezaei, as saying in an interview on Saturday.<\/span><\/p>\n However, fighting in the Middle East continued as Yemen\u2019s Iran-backed Houthis \u200csaid \u2060they had attacked Riyadh as well as a Saudi Aramco facility in the Red Sea city of Yanbu, while pushing to cut off the Red Sea coast from remaining areas held by Saudi-backed forces.<\/span><\/p>\n China has asked Iran to help rein in the Houthis after an appeal to Beijing \u200bby Saudi Arabia following \u200bthe attacks, according \u2060to three Iranian sources familiar with the matter.<\/span><\/p>\n The attacks by the Houthis on Aramco\u2019s East-West pipeline have prompted the firm to increase exports through the \u200bStrait of Hormuz this month and next after halting some shipments via Yanbu.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cMiddle \u200bEast oil \u2060flows remain surprisingly strong despite the disruption to Saudi Arabia\u2019s East-West pipeline,\u201d JPMorgan analysts said in a September 18 note.<\/span><\/p>\n