WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump says he plans to waive oil-related sanctions, have the US Navy escort tankers through the Strait of Hormuz and predicted the war with Iran would resolve “very soon” as he confronted mounting economic and political pressures after days of dramatic fluctuations in oil markets.
The president said he did not believe the conflict would be over this week, but insisted the operation was ahead of schedule and looked to shore up investors increasingly concerned about energy prices.
He vowed bombing “at a much, much harder level” if Iran disrupted oil supplies alongside his sanctions pledge.
“We’re looking to keep the oil prices down,” Trump said at a news conference at his resort in Doral, Florida. “They went artificially up because of this excursion.”
The president did not offer additional specifics, beyond acknowledging he had discussed the topic with Russian President Vladimir Putin in a phone call earlier Monday. Russia has faced sanctions on its oil revenue in an international bid to deprive the country of revenue over its war in Ukraine.
But as a whole, Trump’s remarks underscored a new willingness by the White House to publicly indicate that it could be moving soon to attempt to wrap up the conflict.
“Together with our Israeli partners, we’re crushing the enemy in an overwhelming display of technical skill and military force,” Trump told Republican lawmakers on Monday.
At the press conference, the president claimed the United States had hit 5,000 targets in the country, said Iran’s missile capability was down to 10%, and that drone launches from the country had decreased 83%.
The US military objectives could be described as “pretty well complete”, Trump said. At the same time, Trump acknowledged unanswered questions that remained about the leadership in Tehran and vowed he would “not relent until the enemy is totally and decisively defeated”.
The president said that while the United States had sunk more than 50 Iranian ships, a prolonged conflict could see the US bomb additional “important targets” including electricity production facilities.
“We’ve already won in many ways, but we haven’t won enough,” he said. “We go forwards more determined than ever to achieve ultimate victory that will end this long-running danger once and for all.”
The comments underscored the challenges ahead for Trump, who will need to reconcile his promises of total victory with the economic and political consequences of continuing the war.
US stocks recovered from losses earlier on Monday, after the president made initial comments signalling an openness to ending the conflict to CBS News. Those comments sent the S&P 500 up as much as 1%, after a CBS reporter posted the comments on X. Oil and US treasury yields fell.
US oil futures fell below US$90 a barrel post settlement after surging above US$119 early in the session in a volatile trading day.
Markets eased as the world’s largest economies considered a coordinated effort on emergency energy supplies and Trump’s comments signalled he could seek a conclusion to the conflict.
Still, the Strait of Hormuz remained all but closed, with no finalised plans on how nations will safeguard ships passing through the key waterway.
Trump told CBS the Strait of Hormuz was seeing more ship traffic and that he is “thinking about taking it over”. It was not immediately clear what specific actions the president was contemplating.
Trump also spoke with Russian President Vladimir Putin about Iran and the war in Ukraine, Tass reported on Monday, citing Yuri Ushakov, an aide to the Russian leader.
The US president, already facing domestic concerns over persistent inflation ahead of November midterm elections, must now grapple with rising petrol pump prices as the war shows no letup.
On Sunday, he called US$100 oil a “small price to pay” and said the cost “will drop rapidly when the destruction of the Iran nuclear threat is over”.
The effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz has forced Saudi Arabia, the world’s biggest oil exporter, to reduce production, according to a person familiar with the matter.
That follows similar moves by the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Kuwait and Iraq.
Futures pulled back after Group of Seven (G7) finance ministers said they were ready to take any steps needed to support global energy supply, including releasing strategic oil reserves.
Still, the G7 is “not there yet” in terms of agreeing to tap emergency energy supplies, according to France, which holds the current presidency.
But the group said in a statement that it would “continue to closely monitor the situation and developments in the energy markets” and “stand ready to take necessary measures, including to support global supply of energy such as stockpile release”.
The United States reported its seventh casualty on Sunday. Two Israeli soldiers and about a dozen Israeli civilians also have lost their lives.
Data from the UAE suggests Iran’s barrage of missiles and drones is easing, even as Tehran is still attacking Israel and Arab Gulf states regularly with drones and missiles. As recently as Sunday, Trump’s defence secretary was still signalling that the United States would be escalating its attacks on Iran.
“We have just now begun to fight, just now begun to surge,” Pete Hegseth told CBS’ 60 Minutes in an interview.
Israeli forces maintained attacks on southern Lebanon, aiming to degrade Iran-aligned Hezbollah.
The North Atlantic Treaty Organisation intercepted a ballistic missile fired from Iran towards Turkey on Monday, the second such incident, raising the risk the military alliance could be drawn more directly into the conflict.
More than 1,300 Iranians have died in the war so far, according to an official toll that’s not been updated for several days.
Some 486 people have died in Lebanon, according to the nation’s health ministry.
Four civilians died in the UAE, while two members of its armed forces were killed when a malfunctioning helicopter crashed. There also have been several deaths in other Gulf countries.
Trump said in a pair of social media posts on Monday that he had spoken to Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to help ensure safety of the Iranian women’s soccer team, whose players finished their competition in the Asian Cup on the Gold Coast. — Bloomberg
