Trump to decide whether to attack Iran in next 10 days — oil prices rise

President Donald Trump said Thursday he will decide whether to launch a military strike on Iran within the next 10 days.

“So now we may have to go a step further, or we may not,” Trump said at the opening meeting of the Peace Board. “Maybe we’ll make a deal. You’ll probably find out in the next 10 days.”

US crude oil Oil prices rose $1.24, or 1.9%, to close at $66.43 a barrel. Global benchmark Brent It settled at $71.66, up $1.31, or 1.86%.

“It has proven over the years that making a meaningful deal with Iran is not easy,” the president said. “We have to make a meaningful deal, or bad things will happen.”

Oil prices rose this week on fears of an impending US attack on Iran. WTI is up more than 5% this week and is up nearly 16% so far this year.

US ambassadors Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner held talks with Iran regarding its nuclear program in Geneva this week. Vice President J.D. Vance said Tuesday that Iran did not address the red lines Trump set during the talks.

A major US military build-up is underway in the Middle East. The USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier is currently in the region. The second aircraft carrier, USS Gerald Ford, is also on the way.

These are “many reasons and arguments that could be made for an attack against Iran,” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said Wednesday. He said talks in Geneva had made some progress, but Iran and the United States were “still very far apart on some issues.”

Iran’s Revolutionary Guard held military exercises in the Strait of Hormuz this week. The Bosphorus is an important transit point for global oil trade.

Oil traders are worried that the war between the United States and Iran will disrupt the flow of crude oil through the Bosphorus.