New Delhi: The US is “very close to meeting its objective” in the war with Iran, President Donald J. Trump said Friday, indicating Washington’s intention to start “winding down” the military operations, after three weeks of intense fighting.
Trump, who had said the war was about regime change in Iran during the opening days of the war on 28 February, has since shifted his stance, with the focus being on “degrading” Tehran’s missile launch capabilities, and ensuring the West Asian nation will “never” be capable of building a nuclear weapon. The US President’s shifting stance comes after energy prices spiked in the last few days, with the Brent crude oil future benchmark touching $112 a barrel.
“We are getting very close to meeting our objectives as we consider winding down our great military efforts in the Middle East with respect to the Terrorist Regime of Iran: (1) Completely degrading Iranian Missile Capability, Launchers, and everything else pertaining to them,” Trump said in a post on Truth Social.
The US President added: “(2) Destroying Iran’s Defence Industrial Base. (3) Eliminating their Navy and Air Force, including Anti Aircraft Weaponry. (4) Never allowing Iran to get even close to Nuclear Capability, and always being in a position where the U.S.A. can quickly and powerfully react to such a situation, should it take place. (5) Protecting, at the highest level, our Middle Eastern Allies, including Israel, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Kuwait, and others.”
The softening of Trump’s stance, also occurs at a time when the US Department of Defence is set to seek an additional funding of $200 billion, given the costs of military operations in West Asia. The war with Iran has not come cheap for the US, Israel or its allies in the region.
QatarEnergy Friday announced that roughly $20 billion revenue per annum from its liquefied natural gas exports has been wiped out following Iran’s attack on the Ras Laffan industrial city late Wednesday evening. Around 17 per cent of Qatar’s total LNG exports has been hit by the strike.
Tehran’s strikes against energy infrastructure in the region occurred after Israel hit the South Pars natural gas field in Iran. Trump moved to distance the US from the Israeli strike, with Prime Minister Netanyahu Thursday clarifying that there was no coordination between Tel Aviv and Washington in the attack.
The attacks on energy infrastructure in the region have spooked energy markets, with prices roughly 50 per cent higher than before the war started. Energy infrastructure in Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia have all been targeted by Iran, while Iraq announced a force majeure—releasing itself from contracted liabilities—due to the ongoing situation in West Asia.
The Strait of Hormuz remains effectively closed, with little movement of tankers. The strait accounts for roughly a fifth of global energy supplies. Trump Friday said that the strait should be protected by “nations who use it” highlighting that the US “does not” and that it should be easy to do so with the destruction of Iran’s military capacity.
However, despite the repeated attacks by the US and Israel on Iranian military targets, Tehran has been able to launch strikes across the region including ballistic missiles and unmanned aerial vehicles.
US eases waiver on Iran oil sales
The price spikes in the global energy markets led to the US Friday also easing sanctions on the sale of crude oil by Iran. The move by the US Treasury Department to temporarily waive sanctions on the sale of Iranian crude already at sea for around 30-days shows the political costs of the war with Tehran for the Trump administration.
“Today, the Department of the Treasury is issuing a narrowly tailored, short-term authorisation permitting the sale of Iranian oil currently stranded at sea,” Scott Bessent, the US Treasury Secretary said in a statement on X.
The limited waiver comes a year after the US returned to its “maximum pressure” campaign to sanction Tehran and curtail its avenue to earn revenues. The waiver on Iranian oil sale will allow roughly 140 million barrels of crude to enter the market and comes a week after the US eased sanctions on sale of Russian crude stranded at sea.
Washington had spent months pressuring India to curtail Russian crude oil purchases, however, since the war with Iran began, the US has pushed New Delhi to do the opposite to stabilise global energy markets.
For Trump, higher energy prices are politically untenable, especially as mid-term elections are scheduled for November for the US Congress. The US President had during his campaign in 2024 railed against his predecessor—Joseph R. Biden Jr—for high energy prices following the start of Russia’s war with Ukraine in 2022.
“So far, the Trump Administration has been working to bring around 440 million additional barrels of oil to the global market, undercutting Iran’s ability to leverage its disruptions in the Strait of Hormuz,” said Bessent.
(Edited by Viny Mishra)
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