US to hit Iran ‘very hard’, warns Trump
The United States will hit Iran “very hard next week,” President Donald Trump said shortly after granting a partial 30-day waiver on purchases of sanctioned Russian oil, hoping to ease prices fueled by the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran.
Prices have been shaken by Trump’s changing comments on the likely duration of the war, which prompted Iran to attack ships in the Strait of Hormuz, through which one-fifth of the world’s oil passes.
Trump had previously stated that the war was “completed” and promised to guarantee the safety of ships in the strait. In a Fox News interview aired Friday, Trump said the U.S. would escort shipping there “if necessary.”
Benchmark Brent crude fell about 0.6 per cent to around US$99.80 ($A142.32) and is up almost 40 per cent since the start of the conflict.
After nearly two weeks of fighting, 2,000 people have been killed, mostly in Iran, but many more in Lebanon and a growing number in the Gulf, which finds itself on the front line for the first time after decades of conflict in the Middle East.
Several million people were displaced from their homes. As Israeli warplanes hit Beirut’s suburbs with airstrikes, Lebanon’s interior minister said authorities were unable to accommodate hundreds of thousands of people seeking refuge in the capital.
Israel has also dropped leaflets threatening destruction on the scale of Gaza, while deploying more troops to fight against Iran-backed Hezbollah and warning of further attacks on Lebanon’s infrastructure.
US forces also suffered losses. The US military has confirmed that all six crew members of a refueling plane that crashed in western Iraq were killed.
Iran fired more missiles and drones at Israel, and Iranian drones were reported to have flown into Kuwait, Iraq, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, and Oman.
The Israeli army launched an attack on Tehran. It was stated that the air force hit more than 200 targets in the western and central parts of Iran last day, including ballistic missile launchers, air defense systems and weapons production facilities.
President Masoud Pezeshkian, Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi and security chief Ali Larijani openly attended the rally in a gesture of defiance in videos verified by Reuters, despite US Defense Secretary Peter Hegseth claiming the leadership was “scared” underground.
Judiciary chief Gholamhossein Mohseni-Ejei said at the march, “People are not afraid of these attacks. As you can see, people went out in this rain, under these difficulties.” he said.
“We will not back down in any way.”
As gasoline and diesel prices rose at pumps in the United States and around the world, the United States on Thursday granted countries a 30-day license to purchase Russian oil and petroleum products already at sea; It is not uncommon here for consignments to be sold or their recipients changed.
The war has led to the largest oil supply disruption in history, the International Energy Agency said on Thursday.
The war led to a severe shortage of cooking gas in India, which has long-standing ties with Iran. Iran allowed two Indian-flagged liquefied petroleum gas ships to pass through the Strait of Hormuz, four sources told Reuters.
The US waiver of Russian oil was welcomed in Moscow but angered Kyiv and its allies.
“The six members of the G7 expressed a very clear opinion that this is not the right signal,” German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said at a press conference in Norway. he said.
“We later learned this morning that the American government had apparently decided otherwise.”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said the move could provide Russia with US$10 billion ($14 billion), adding: “This certainly does not help peace.”
Trump said in an interview with Fox News Radio on Friday that he thought Russian President Vladimir Putin could help Iran “a little bit.”
“I think he might be helping it (Iran) a little bit, yeah I guess. And he probably thinks we’re helping Ukraine, right?” Without specifying the nature of this aid, Trump said:
