Trump says he won’t let Iran ‘hold the world hostage’ over oil

An airstrike hit a camp for Iran-backed militias in northern Iraq early Tuesday, killing at least five people, officials said.
It wasn’t immediately clear who was behind the strike on 40th Brigade of the Popular Mobilization Forces in the city of Kirkuk.
The attack also wounded four other militants, said the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief reporters.
Iranian-backed militants have launched attacks aimed at U.S. bases in Iraq since the war against Iran began on Feb. 28.

Iranian fired drones early Tuesday towards Saudi Arabia and Kuwait.
The Saudi Defense Ministry said it destroyed two drones over the kingdom’s oil-rich eastern region while in Kuwait, the National Guard said it shot down six drones attacking the county’s northern and southern areas.
Neither Saudi Arabia nor Kuwait provided further details.

Egypt hiked fuel prices by up to 17% on Tuesday as the war in the Middle East sent prices of oil soaring.

According to the Petroleum Ministry the cost of a liter of diesel, which is heavily relied on for public transport, increased by more than 17%. The price of the 92-octane gasoline rose by 15% and 95-octane gasoline increased by 14%.

The war has hit Egypt hard. The most populous Arab country, Egypt depends heavily on imported fuel. The Egyptian pound fell to a record low, trading at over 52 to the US dollar on Monday.
To mitigate impact of the war, the government announced a series of measures ,including reducing official overseas trips and tightening fuel consumption across sectors.

The paramilitary Revolutionary Guard said on Tuesday that the end of the war will be determined by Iran.

Spokesperson Ali Mohammad Naini said in a statement published in various Iranian state media and apparently in response to Trump’s remarks Monday that “Iran will determine when the war ends.”

The U.S. president pledged aggressive action against Iran if it continues to block the shipment of oil in the Strait of Hormuz.

“If Iran does anything that stops the flow of Oil within the Strait of Hormuz, they will be hit by the United States of America TWENTY TIMES HARDER than they have been hit thus far,” Trump posted on social media. “Additionally, we will take out easily destroyable targets that will make it virtually impossible for Iran to ever be built back, as a Nation, again — Death, Fire, and Fury will reign upon them — But I hope, and pray, that it does not happen!”

The president said his threat was a “gift” to China, among other nations, because it relies on oil from the Middle East.

A handful of Senate Democrats are threatening to impede the Senate’s work unless the Trump administration provides public hearings on the war with Iran.

A vote on a war powers resolution, which would have required congressional approval for any further attacks on Iran, failed last week mostly along party lines. But a group of Democratic senators has filed several similar pieces of legislation and could potentially force repeated votes on them if they choose.

New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker said they were going to “use every lever that we have to stop business as usual” unless there is an agreement from Republicans.

The tactic showed how Democrats are desperate to force a debate on the Iran war, but because they have minorities in both chambers of Congress, they are getting creative to force the issue into the public view.

Australia will deploy the E-7A Wedgetail surveillance aircraft and around 85 military personnel for four weeks, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said Tuesday.

He will also send the United Arab Emirates “advanced, medium-range airway missiles” in response to a request for them.

The prime minister said the move was purely to defend Gulf airspace, while Defense Minister Richard Marles cited the need to protect tens of thousands of Australians living in the region.

Trump erroneously claimed that Iran has access to the American Tomahawk cruise missile, the weapon likely used to strike a girls school in Iran, killing 165 people.

Asked if the U.S. would accept responsibility for the strike, Trump argued that the cruise missile, which is made by the American defense contractor Raytheon, is “sold and used by other countries” and that Iran “also has some Tomahawks.”

“Whether it’s Iran or somebody else ... a Tomahawk is very generic,” he said.

While Raytheon sells the missile to allied countries like Japan and Australia, there is no evidence to suggest that Iran has gotten its hands on the cruise missile.

When asked why he was the only person in his administration making the claim, Trump replied: “Because I just don’t know enough about it.” He added that “whatever the report shows, I’m willing to live with that report.”

“If I didn’t hit them first, they were going to hit our allies first. I believe upon information and belief,” the president told reporters, before adding, “They were going to take over the Middle East.”

“Upon information and belief” is a phrase often used in legal settings, including in affidavits.

It is usually meant to denote declarations that a statement is based on second-hand information, but is also believed to be true by the speaker.

Trump was indicted in four criminal cases, and also faced civil charges related to his business practices, before returning to the White House. He’s no stranger to being in court or talking to lawyers.

Israel’s military announcement just minutes before midnight of more missiles fired at the country from Iran closed a Monday marked by relentless waves of attacks.

In all, Israel’s military alerted the population 12 times throughout the day about incoming missile salvos from Iran. From Lebanon, Iran-backed Hezbollah also fired rockets into Israel on Monday.

One man was killed by Iranian missile fire, raising the country’s death toll to 11. More were injured — at least two of them seriously — in the attacks and as they made their way to shelters, according to Israel’s emergency services.

Sirens alerting the population in different parts of Israel to seek shelter immediately have been wailing at intervals throughout the day and night since the war started.

Trump said he and Vice President JD Vance “get along very well” on issues related to Iran, but the president noted that his No. 2 was “maybe less enthusiastic about going” than he was.

Vance, Trump also noted, is “philosophically a little bit different than me.”

Vance has largely opposed U.S. intervention abroad. While still in the U.S. Senate and before Trump tapped him as his running mate, Vance cited Trump’s lack of foreign military entanglement as part of why he backed him for president in the 2024 campaign.

The U.S. president told reporters that he thought the pick of Mojtaba Khamenei to succeed his father as Iran’s supreme leader would lead to “more of the same” for a country that he seeks to change.

Trump said it “would be inappropriate” to say whether Iran’s new leader would be targeted for a lethal assault as was his father, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Trump said he liked “the idea” of a leader drawn from an “internal” group of candidates, saying that this process “works well” with Venezuela’s new leader, Delcy Rodriguez.

But Trump also elevated his expectations by saying he would like a candidate who was “internal and eternal.”

Citizens in Iran’s capital heard more than 20 heavy explosions as many rushed to safer places.

The strikes around midnight were the heaviest air raids on Tehran since beginning of the war.

The sound of bombers and warplanes flying overhead were constant for about half an hour. Witnesses reported explosions in western areas of the city. Electricity was cut off in some neighborhoods.

Similar explosions in other Iranian cities were reported on social media.

Iranian media did not report on damage and casualties from the strikes.

The president was asked about his comments earlier Monday in which he told a reporter that the war was “very complete,” while at the same time, the Pentagon on Monday said on social media: “We have Only Just Begun to Fight.”

Trump was asked whether it was the end or the beginning and said, “It’s the beginning of building a new country,” a comment that seemed to suggest the U.S. might be engaged in the building of a new Iran.

Trump described the conversation as “very good” and said he and Putin discussed the “never-ending fight” between Russia and Ukraine. He said it was a “positive call on that subject.”

Trump said Putin “wants to be helpful” on the Mideast. He said he told the Russian leader that “you could be more helpful by getting the Ukraine Russia war over with.”

“But we had a very good talk and he wants to be very constructive,” Trump said.

Trump seemed to threaten intensified action on Iran if the country made any “attempt to stop the globe’s oil supply,” saying that they would “get hit at a much, much harder level.” He didn’t give details.

Following remarks to Republicans in Florida, Trump said Iran would “never be able to recover, ever” from potential U.S. strikes on related targets, which he did not specify.

“We’re putting an end to all of this threat once and for all, and the result will be lower oil prices, oil and gas prices for American families,” Trump said, as fuel prices have risen across the U.S. in the war’s wake. “We’ve done that. We’ve done it. We’ve brought it very low. This was just an excursion into something that had to be done.”

Though the president has long professed an “America First” policy prioritizing the U.S., Trump suggested at his news conference that the war was for the benefit of other nations, especially those dependent on oil that’s shipped through the Strait of Hormuz.

“I mean, we’re doing this for the other parts of the world, including countries like China,” Trump said.

Trump told reporters at a news conference that the war with Iran started because that country was starting work on a new site for developing material for nuclear weapons.

Trump said the new site was meant to replace the facilities bombed last year by the U.S.

“But they were starting work at another site, a different site, different kind of a site — and that was protected by granite,” Trump said.

The president added that Iran wanted to use the “exponentially growing ballistic missile threat to make it virtually impossible to prevent them from obtaining a nuclear weapon,” claiming that Iran would have otherwise been able to take over the Middle East.

The U.S. president told House Republicans that he’s beaten inflation, even as swings in the oil market have gasoline costs rising in America after the start of the war with Iran.

Trump said that Democrats before his second term caused affordability to be a problem, “but we’re really bringing down prices.”
Gas prices have risen 20% in the past month to a national average of $3.48 a gallon, according to AAA.

But Trump didn’t bother to address that, saying of prices that, “We’re even bringing them down further. They’ll be way down.”

The move comes as the State Department is under increasing but historically familiar criticism for not doing enough to prepare embassies, consulates and American citizens living abroad for conflict.

The department on Monday ordered the departure of nonessential staff and families from Saudi Arabia and the consulate in Adana, Turkey, in response to escalating Iranian retaliation to U.S.-Israeli attacks.

That means 10 U.S. embassies and consulates in the region have reduced staffing, although only two have fully suspended operations. The reductions are the largest since the Iraq War began in 2003.

▶ Read more about the State Department’s crisis response.

The president dismissed criticisms from some Democratic officials that there was no reason for the U.S. and Israel to strike Iran.

“Well, I’ll give you the best reason of all. Within a week they were going to attack us, 100%. They were ready,” Trump said.

He did not offer any new information to support that but said Iran had “all these missiles, far more than anyone thought.”

However, Trump administration officials told congressional staff in private briefings that U.S. intelligence did not suggest Iran was preparing to launch a preemptive strike against the U.S.

Saudi Arabia’s defense ministry said Monday night it downed the drones over the Empty Quarter desert, and that the drones had been fired toward its massive Shaybah oil field.

The attack came in two waves; the first had three drones and the second had nine, the ministry’s spokesperson said.

The ministry has repeatedly posted in recent days about intercepting drones targeting the Shaybah field.

The U.S. president briefly recounted what family members of the soldiers killed as part of the ongoing war with Iran told him during the dignified transfer of their remains Saturday in Dover, Delaware.

“But they all said one thing to me: ‘Make sure you win, sir. Make sure you win,’” Trump said.

Trump called the dignified transfer “a beautiful thing, but it’s also a very sad thing.”

Trump opened his address to the lawmakers by talking about Iran, saying “we took a little excursion” to the Middle East “to get rid of some evil. And, I think you’ll see it’s going to be a short-term excursion.”

The legislators met earlier in the day at Trump’s golf club near Miami.

There was no immediate word on casualties or damage, but the Kuwaiti army’s statement said the sound of explosions late Monday were from interception efforts.

Hours earlier, Kuwait’s ruling emir gave a speech saying the country has been attacked by a “neighboring Muslim country,” without naming it.

The emir insisted that Kuwait’s territory, air space and coasts have not been used in any military operations against that neighboring country, and “this was repeatedly conveyed through our diplomatic channels.”

Kuwait, a small, oil-rich Gulf nation, has carefully managed its relationship with Iran.

The National Intelligence Council’s assessment in February concluded that neither limited airstrikes nor a larger, prolonged military campaign would be likely to result in a new government taking over in Iran, even if the current leadership was killed.

That’s according to two people familiar with the finding, who spoke on condition of anonymity to describe the classified report.

The determination undercuts the administration’s assertion that it can complete its objectives in Iran relatively quickly, perhaps in a matter of weeks.

A spokesperson for the Office of the Director of National Intelligence declined to comment on the assessment on Monday and referred questions to the White House.

▶ Read more about the intelligence assessment on Iran.

Although Iran’s military capabilities have taken a big hit, one analyst says it “still has a whole bunch of tools, that gives it great reach.”

That’s according to Martin Sampson, executive director of the International Institute for Strategic Studies-Middle East. He estimated Iran is down to only 100 and 200 ballistic missile launchers, without giving details on how he arrived at that figure.

“What is absent on the battlefield are cruise missiles at the moment,” he explained.

“They’re arguably the target set that poses the most challenges, particularly for the Arabian Peninsula. They’re fast-moving, they have low radar signature, you have less reaction time,” he said.

Iran is “focusing clearly on regionalizing the war and internationalizing the economic costs,” he said. “That does not necessarily require a significant ballistic missile depth.”

The Iranian athletes, who were visiting the country for a tournament, were transported from their hotel “to a safe location” by federal police officers in the early hours of Tuesday morning local time, Australia’s Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke said.

There, they met with Burke and the processing of their humanitarian visas finalized, the minister told reporters in Brisbane hours later.

Trump had said Monday that Australia’s prime minister was helping the Iranian team after Trump urged the U.S. ally to grant the players asylum rather than send them back to Iran.

The U.S. stock market careened through a manic Monday, going from a steep early loss to a solid gain as worries turned into hope that the war with Iran may not last that long.

Oil prices whipped from nearly $120 per barrel, their highest since 2022, back toward $90.

The S&P 500 fell as much as 1.5% before flipping to a gain of 0.8%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 239 points, and the Nasdaq composite climbed 1.4%. They’re the latest hour-to-hour swings to pummel markets because of uncertainty about how high oil prices will go and how long they will stay there.

Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and South African President Cyril Ramaphosa met in Brasília on Monday. Lula also called for stronger military preparedness in Brazil, saying the country must be ready to defend itself.

“No one here has atomic bombs, our drones are for agriculture, technology and not for war. We think of defense as dissuasion, but I don’t know if our friend Ramaphosa notices that if we don’t get prepared in defense matters, someday we could be invaded,” said Lula, who later this year is bidding for his fourth non-consecutive term as president.

The European Union’s economic chief is warning of the threat of stagflation if the war in the Middle East drags on, but says it’s too early to know how great the conflict’s impact will be.

“Stagflation” is a toxic combination of still-high inflation and a weak or stagnant economy. It bedeviled the U.S. in the 1970s, when even deep recessions didn’t kill inflation.

“Persistent targeting of shipping and energy infrastructure risks exposing the global economy to a stagflationary shock over the longer term,” EU Economy Commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis told reporters after a meeting of Eurogroup finance ministers.

But he said that “should the conflict quickly de-escalate, contain disruptions to energy supplies and infrastructure (it) would likely have limited impact.”

“We need to keep a cool head, so to say, and continue to monitor the situation,” he said.

Trump commented as rising oil and gasoline prices caused by the war spark international concern.

CBS News White House reporter Weijia Jiang posted on X that Trump told her over the phone Monday that the war is “very far ahead of schedule.”

“I think the war is very complete, pretty much,” Jiang quoted Trump as telling her. “They have no navy, no communications, they’ve got no Air Force.”

Trump had said the war could last about four weeks. It was launched on Feb. 28.

Asked about the Strait of Hormuz, Trump told Jiang that ships continue to move through the vital shipping channel but that he is “thinking about taking it over.”

Putin’s foreign affairs adviser Yuri Ushakov described the conversation as “frank and businesslike” and said it lasted about one hour.

He said the Russian president “voiced a few ideas aimed at a quick political and diplomatic settlement” of the conflict following his conversations with Gulf leaders and Iran’s president.

Trump offered his assessment of the developing situation, Ushakov said, “in the context of the ongoing U.S.-Israeli operation.” The two leaders had a “specific and useful” exchange of views, and they touched on Venezuela “in the context of the situation in the global oil market,” he said.

Iran’s capital has no citywide system of shelters or sirens to warn residents of incoming U.S. and Israeli strikes, leaving many to take cover in interior rooms and tape up windows to protect against shattered glass, a 41-year-old resident said. He said the city’s subway hasn’t become widely used as a shelter.

Because of Iran’s ongoing internet shutdown, many people there rely on satellite TV, state media and word of mouth for news about the war, he said, speaking on condition of anonymity out of security fears.

Mohammad Raad, the leader of Hezbollah’s bloc in the Lebanese parliament, also slammed the government for criticizing the militant group’s rocket attacks. He made the remarks in a televised statement as top government officials urged the international community for a diplomatic resolution that maintains Lebanon’s commitment to disarming Hezbollah.

“Lebanon today is not choosing between war and peace, as some claim,” Raad said, “but between war and submission to the humiliating conditions that the enemy wants to impose on our government.”

“We will fight the enemy with our teeth and nails until we expel them from our land, in fulfillment of our religious duty,” he said.

The head of the International Maritime Organization says they were killed in “recent” attacks on merchant vessels. Arsenio Dominguez spoke earlier Monday and said several other mariners had been injured, “some of them gravely.”

He did not say who was behind the attacks and urged shipping companies to use “maximum caution” in the region. He said all parties must respect the freedom of navigation.

The venue swap for the March 21 inaugural competition featuring numerous NFL players and coaches comes amid the Iran war and travel advisories.

It was slated to be held at Kingdom Arena in Riyadh, but instead will relocate to BMO Stadium, which will be the site where flag football makes its Olympic debut at the 2028 LA Games.

The French president said he started discussing a French-led initiative that will involve European and non-European nations helping to escort oil and gas tankers with the aim of gradually reopening the Strait of Hormuz off Iran “as soon as possible after the most intense phase of the conflict is over.”

Macron said he talked with some other European nations and India about the proposal, during a visit to Cyprus.

“We are preparing this mission with our partners,” he said. The mission’s purpose would be “strictly peaceful and defensive”, he said and would come only when most strikes stop. “It is essential to our economies and to the global economy” to ensure freedom of navigation and maritime security in the region, he said.

The leader of Yemen’s Houthi rebels congratulated Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei on being selected as the new supreme leader in Iran, calling it a “significant achievement in these exceptional circumstances.”

In a statement, Abdul-Malik al-Houthi says the group is supporting Iran “against aggression and tyranny” without saying whether the group would join the war.

Iran has long backed Houthis, considered the strongest within Iran’s self-described “Axis of Resistance” that includes Lebanon’s Hezbollah group and Hamas. The Houthis follow a branch of Shiite Islam that is almost exclusively found in Yemen.

President Ilham Aliyev on Monday congratulated Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei and said he hoped the two countries would deepen relations “in a spirit of mutual respect and trust.”

Aliyev’s message comes despite strained ties between Baku and Tehran, which spiked last week after Azerbaijan accused Iran of firing drones at its Nakhchivan exclave, an allegation Tehran denies. Azerbaijan also has increasing military and economic ties with Israel.

Just a few days ago, Father Pierre al-Rai had appeared in a widely circulated video saying that he would not leave the village, despite the escalating conflict between Israel and Hezbollah militants in the border area.

“I am ready to die in my home, because it is my home,” he said in the video, adding that “the only weapons we carry are peace, goodness and love.”

There was no Israeli statement on his death. The Israeli military has issued several broad evacuation warnings telling residents in the area south of the Litani River to leave, as it is carrying out heavy bombardment that it says targets Hezbollah sites.

Residents of Qlayaa protested to demand the Lebanese army increase its presence around the town and prevent armed groups from entering the area, the National News Agency reported.

John Healey said Typhoon jets successfully took out two drones, one over Jordan and the second heading to Bahrain. He did not give more details.

He also confirmed that the first U.S. bomber aircraft landed at an airbase in England on Friday, after the U.K. gave the U.S. permission to use British bases for specific defensive operations.

Healey added Monday the destroyer HMS Dragon would set sail for the eastern Mediterranean “in the next couple of days,” where it would join U.S. air defense vessels.

The two-week school closure would affect about 40 million students in a country of roughly 250 million.

In response to soaring global oil prices, Pakistan is also telling half its state employees to work from home and switching colleges and universities to remote classes.

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif also announced a 50% cut in free fuel allocation for government vehicles for the next two months. Government offices, excluding banks, will operate four days a week.

Dramatic security camera video shows a man walking next to a road as a huge explosion occurs. He then falls, apparently injured, while another person rushes to help him.

On Monday, Israel said another man was killed by Iranian missile fire in the same area, raising the country’s death toll to 11. This marked the first death from missiles in Israel in a week.

A foreign policy adviser to the office of the supreme leader told CNN on Monday that Iran is prepared for a long war with the United States, ruling out that diplomacy could end the conflict that started over a week ago.

“I don’t see any room for diplomacy anymore,” said Kamal Kharazi in an interview from Tehran. “There’s no room unless the economic pressure would be built up to the extent that other countries would intervene to guarantee (the) termination of aggression of Americans and Israelis against Iran”.