U.S. President Donald Trump threatened more strikes on Iran’s main oil export hub Kharg Island and said he was not ready for a deal with Tehran to end the war which has shut off the vital Strait of Hormuz and caused chaos in global energy markets.
With the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran in its third week, Trump said U.S. strikes had “totally demolished” much of the island and warned of more, telling NBC News on Saturday, “We may hit it a few more times just for fun.”
The comments marked a sharp escalation from Trump, who had previously said the U.S. was targeting only military sites on Kharg, and dealt a blow to diplomatic efforts to end a war that has spread across the Middle East and killed more than 2,000 people, most in Iran and Lebanon.
Washington has brushed aside attempts by Middle Eastern allies to open talks, three sources told Reuters and Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said on Sunday they had fired more missiles at Israel and three U.S. bases in the region.
Trump, who has made a series of varying demands, including a say in choosing Iran’s leader and an end to its nuclear and ballistic missile programmes, told NBC News that Tehran appeared ready to make a deal to end the fighting but that “the terms aren’t good enough yet”.
In his interview with NBC, Trump raised the possibility that Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei may have been killed but Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said Khamenei was in full health and managing the situation.
WAR, ENERGY CRISIS LOOK SET TO PERSIST
With no clear end in sight, Iran’s ability to choke off traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, the conduit for a fifth of global oil and liquefied natural gas, has emerged with increasing urgency as a decisive threat to the global economy.
Although some Iranian vessels have continued to pass, the passage has been effectively closed for most of the world’s shipping since the United States and Israel attacked Iran on February 28 at the start of an intensive bombing campaign that has hit thousands of targets across the country.
Khamenei, who succeeded as supreme leader after his father Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was killed on the first day of the attacks, has said the Strait of Hormuz should remain closed.
The International Energy Agency said last week the closure of the narrow passage along Iran’s southern coast had triggered the largest disruption to global oil markets in history, and was expected to cut around 8% of global supplies in March.
The global ship-refueling hub of Fujairah in the United Arab Emirates resumed oil-loading operations on Sunday, a Fujairah-based industry source said.
With crude oil prices above $100 a barrel and expected to rise further next week, the issue has hung over Trump’s Republican Party, which faces a major test at midterm elections in November.
Trump himself has dismissed worries about spiking prices for American consumers, saying they will fall back quickly. But he has called on China, France, Japan, South Korea, Britain and others to send warships to the Strait of Hormuz to ensure shipping can pass.
“The Countries of the World that receive Oil through the Hormuz Strait must take care of that passage, and we will help — A LOT!” Trump wrote in a social media post on Saturday. “The U.S. will also coordinate with those Countries so that everything goes quickly, smoothly, and well.”
France is seeking to assemble a coalition to secure the strait once the security situation stabilizes, while Britain is discussing a range of options with allies to ensure the security of shipping, officials have said.
But none of the countries mentioned gave any immediate indication of moving while fighting continued.
Araqchi told his French counterpart that countries must refrain from anything that could escalate the conflict. He also said Iran would respond to any attack on its energy facilities.
