President Donald Trump said U.S. forces will keep hitting Iran “very hard” in the next two or three weeks and bring the country “back to the Stone Ages,” even as he touted the success of U.S. operations and argued that all of Washington’s objectives have so far been met or exceeded.
Trump said Iran would continue to face a barrage of attacks in the short term.
“We are going to hit them extremely hard over the next two to three weeks,” Trump said. “We’re going to bring them back to the Stone Ages, where they belong.”
Trump didn’t say anything about negotiations with Iran or bring up the April 6 deadline he set for Iran to open the Strait of Hormuz, the critical waterway for global oil and gas transport. He has threatened to attack Iran's energy infrastructure if the strait was not reopened.
Trump also did not offer a clear path to end the supply disruptions that have sent energy prices soaring. He did not mention the possibility of sending U.S. ground troops into Iran, or NATO, the trans-Atlantic alliance he has railed against for not helping the U.S. secure the waterway.
Trump used his first major address since launching his war in Iran to assure Americans that all of his military objectives will be completed "shortly” and urge an increasingly skeptical electorate to give him a little bit more time.
Trump in his Wednesday evening speech dialed back the bluster that's dominated his rhetoric in recent days as world markets convulse and a badly battered Iran is still landing some effective blows on Gulf neighbors' infrastructure and U.S. bases.
Oil rose more than 7% and Asian stocks fell after the comments. Oil prices were sharply higher following Trump’s remarks. Brent crude, the international standard, jumped 7.4% to $108.69. per barrel. Benchmark U.S. crude rose 7.1% to $107.24 a barrel.
In early European trading, Britain’s FTSE 100 was down 0.2% to 10,342.28. France’s CAC 40 was 0.8% lower at 7,917.81, and Germany’s DAX lost 1.6% to 22,935.01.
U.S. gas prices jumped past an average of $4 a gallon for the first time since 2022 on Tuesday, as the Iran war continues to push fuel prices higher worldwide. Analysts say those high fuel costs will trickle into groceries as businesses’ transportation and packaging costs pile up.
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Macron says military option to reopen Strait of Hormuz is “unrealistic”
French President Emmanuel Macron said France considers it “unrealistic” to reopen the Strait of Hormuz through a military operation.
“There are people who advocate the idea of the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz by force, through a military operation, a position that has at times been expressed by the United States,” Macron told reporters Thursday during a visit to South Korea. “That has never been the option we have chosen, and we consider it unrealistic.”
Macron said a military operation “would take an infinite amount of time and would expose anyone passing through the strait to coastal threats from (Iran’s) Revolutionary Guard, who has capabilities, ballistic missiles and many other risks.”
The reopening of the Strait “can only be done in coordination with Iran,” through negotiations that would follow a potential ceasefire, Macron said.
France is pushing for an international mission involving European and non-European nations to escort oil and gas tankers and reopen the Strait of Hormuz after the most intense phase of the conflict is over.
Iran hangs man convicted over January protests
Iran hanged a man over charges stemming from the nationwide protests in January, the judiciary’s Mizan news agency reported Thursday.
The agency identified the executed man as Amirhossein Hatami, 18, who it alleged attacked a military base to seize weapons.
The Human Rights Activist News Agency had identified Hatami as being at risk of execution, describing him as a “political prisoner.”
It said Hatami and others had entered a Tehran base of the all-volunteer Basij militia, an arm of the Revolutionary Guard, after it had been burned, then had been forced into confessions aired on state television.
“These individuals had not played any role in setting the fire or destroying property at the site, but had merely entered a building that had already been set ablaze by others,” it said.
In March, Iran hanged a 19-year-old star wrestler and two other young men, raising alarm among rights groups that a wave of executions may be underway as authorities, facing relentless attacks from the U.S. and Israel, seek to squelch public dissent.