President Trump said the US faces a stark choice on Iran, military escalation or a deal. Oil prices barely moved.
President Donald Trump said late Wednesday that the United States faces a binary choice in its war with Iran, military escalation or a negotiated settlement, repeating his threat to “blow up” the country if a deal is not reached. Speaking to reporters in the Oval Office, Trump said, “We have to make that decision: We blow them up or make a deal,” adding that the conflict is “going to end very soon, one way or the other.”
Asked how he could negotiate with Iranian officials he has previously described as “crazy,” Trump responded, “Maybe you blow them up.” He said developments would be visible “very soon,” describing the seven-month campaign as headed toward “total military victory” and claiming Iran had been “virtually destroyed” militarily and economically, while asserting the U.S. now holds “almost total control” of the Strait of Hormuz. Trump separately shared a New York Post report citing Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, which said Iran could be left with little left to trade once it completes its remaining oil deliveries to China within two weeks.
Despite the escalatory rhetoric, oil markets showed little reaction. Brent crude fell 0.4% to $97.67 a barrel and U.S. West Texas Intermediate dropped 0.5% to $89.95 a barrel following Trump’s remarks, after prices had already fallen 2.5% Tuesday on expectations of a recovery in Middle East crude exports. The muted market response came as Iran continued weighing Washington’s formal response to its proposal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, submitted last week through Qatari mediators at the United Nations General Assembly. Iranian government spokeswoman Fatemeh Mohajerani said the U.S. response had been presented to President Masoud Pezeshkian for review.
The exchange follows Trump’s denial earlier this week that his administration had offered Iran sanctions relief or the release of frozen funds in exchange for nuclear concessions, and comes as Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps published an open letter this week appealing directly to American voters ahead of November’s midterm elections. U.S. officials dismissed the IRGC’s letter as “propaganda, not peace
This report is based on information from AGBI, Gulf News, Fox News and Al Jazeera.