Unlock the White House Watch newsletter for free
Your guide to what Trump’s second term means for Washington, business and the world
Donald Trump said the US war against Iran would end “very soon” as he sought to calm chaotic trading in the oil market that had sent prices spiralling to their highest in four years and threatened the global economy.
Speaking from his Doral resort near Miami, the US president described the war the US has been waging against Iran since February 28 as a “little excursion” that had succeeded “much faster than we thought” but declined to specify when it would end.
His comments on Monday afternoon came after oil prices rose about 30 per cent to almost $120 a barrel at the start of trading in Asia, roiling equity markets and triggering alarm about the impact of the war on the global economy.
The historic surge forced G7 finance ministers to hold an emergency meeting to consider steps to stabilise energy markets.
“We’re looking to keep the oil prices down,” Trump said. “They went artificially up because of this excursion.”
But even as his remarks helped ease oil prices back below $90, the president also sent conflicting signals about when precisely the US would stop attacking Iran and under what conditions.
In a speech to Republican lawmakers at Doral, he said US forces would not “relent until the enemy is totally and decisively defeated”, and that “we’ve already won in many ways, but we haven’t won enough”.
Asked at a subsequent news conference whether he intended the war to end this week, Trump said: “No, but soon. Very soon.”
“We could call it a tremendous success now and leave here . . . or we could go further and we’re going to go further,” he later added. If Iran “starts up again, they’ll be hit even harder”.
The president was forced to respond to the jump in oil prices when markets opened in Asia on Monday morning, sparking alarm among officials in his administration, who rushed to evaluate policy options to temper panicky trading.
One person familiar with the discussion on Monday morning said officials confronted “panic” in the markets with “all options . . . on the table”.
As Brent crude prices soared to a peak of just over $119, G7 finance ministers held an emergency meeting where they issued a declaration saying they “stand ready” to release emergency stocks of oil, diesel and petrol.
US officials signalled they believed a joint release in the range of 300mn to 400mn barrels would be appropriate, matching or surpassing 300mn jointly released by the US and International Energy Agency in 2022 following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Robert Yawger, analyst at Mizuho, said: “That seems to be the number that Trump and the administration are putting out that they’d be open minded to adding to the global market from member states’ strategic reserves — so the market leaned on that headline.”
He said the oil futures curve, which showed prices for delivery several months in the future were at low levels, suggested “nobody was convinced this crisis is going to last for ever”.
Analysts said Trump’s statement later on Monday afternoon hinting that war could end soon had helped calm markets.
“He knew he needed to ease nerves,” said Michael Alfaro, chief investment officer of Gallo Partners, an energy and industrials hedge fund.
Alfaro said Trump’s comment that the war was proceeding faster than the US had anticipated was read as “a signal that he may be trying to wind down the conflict as soon as possible”.
Following the US president’s remarks on Monday, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said: “Iran will determine the end of the war.”
IRGC spokesperson Ali Mohammad Naini said the force would “not allow one litre of oil to be exported from the region” to hostile parties and their partners until further notice, given the continuation of US and Israeli strikes.
Trump responded later on Truth Social, vowing to hit Iran “TWENTY TIMES HARDER than they have been hit thus far” if it “does anything” to stop the flow of oil through the Strait.
The US military on Monday said it had struck more than 5,000 targets in Iran over 10 days of war including ballistic missile and drone sites, Iranian navy vessels and buildings belonging to the IRGC.
Trump last week said he would accept nothing less than “unconditional surrender” from Tehran. The Iranian leadership over the weekend selected as the country’s new supreme leader Mojtaba Khamenei, the son of the slain Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, in what was widely viewed as a defiant response to the US president’s demands.
Asked whether the younger, more hardline Khamenei — whose selection Trump called “unacceptable” — has a target on his back, Trump declined to say “because that would be inappropriate”.
Trump also on Monday backed away from his previous pledge to help the Iranian people, saying they are “amazing” and he would “love to help them, but they have to be in a system that allows them to be helped. And right now they’re in a system that only allows failure.”
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: ft.com
