Donald Trump is furious after Israel targeted Iran‘s oil depots in a blitz that shocked the White House amid soaring oil prices.
A planned summit between the US and Israel was scrapped on Monday in the first open disagreement between the allies since the war broke out.
Thirty Iranian fuel depots were obliterated over the weekend with apocalyptic images showing fires leaping into the sky, huge columns of smoke, and black oily rain falling from the sky.
White House officials were stunned by the scale of Israel’s bombardment and concerned that images of burning oil would anger Americans facing increased gas prices – up to $3.4 per gallon on average compared to $2.9 before the war started.
‘The president doesn’t like the attack. He wants to save the oil. He doesn’t want to burn it. And it reminds people of higher gas prices,’ a Trump adviser said to Axios.
An Israeli official said the message from the US was stark: ‘What the f***’.
The pressure campaign against Iranian oil reserves continued as the US Navy attacked three regime ships in the Persian Gulf on Monday, with G7 leaders discussing the release of emergency fuel reserves to quell market fears.
Trump’s two-week war with Iran led to oil prices spiking near $120 per barrel before falling back on Monday morning to $103. The Wall Street Journal noted that the war is on the verge of sparking one worst global energy crisis since the 1970s.
The President’s closest advisers are also warning the public that they may have to grapple with higher gas prices, as polling shows Trump losing public support for the war
Video emerged showing flames engulfing neighborhoods across Tehran as civilian ran for safety. It is unclear how many casualties occurred from the Israeli operation
Trump’s two-week war with Iran led to oil prices spiking near $120 per barrel before falling back on Monday morning to $103
A new Daily Mail/J.L. Partners poll found the President’s approval now stands at 44 percent, down four points since last week and marking the lowest rating recorded in Daily Mail tracking to date.
The Israel Defense Forces justified the strike, claiming the oil depots are used by the Islamic regime to ‘fuel different consumers including its military organs.’
Trump’s envoys Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff canceled their planned trip to Israel for a meeting with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday. Neither the US nor Israel provided a reason for the summit’s cancellation.
The closure of the Strait of Hormuz, a narrow waterway connecting the Persian Gulf to the Gulf of Oman, has driven up oil prices. A fifth of global oil flows through the narrow strait.
Iran has closed the transit route by launching drone and missile attacks as retaliatory strikes against the US and Gulf allies since the start of the war.
An emergency meeting of the G7 will be held on Monday, where crisis options including the release of oil reserves will be discussed to help lower global prices.
More Americans are also beginning to feel the cost of the war in their everyday lives.
Higher gas prices can increase the cost of transporting goods and lead to higher prices for everything from groceries to consumer products.
Trump has said he and Netanyahu will make a ‘mutual’ decision on when to end the war with Iran as Pete Hegseth guaranteed Tehran ‘will surrender’.
Speaking by phone with The Times of Israel, Trump said Netanyahu will have input on resolving the conflict.
‘I think it’s mutual … a little bit. We’ve been talking. I’ll make a decision at the right time, but everything’s going to be taken into account,’ said Trump.
Trump is furious after Israel destroyed Tehran’s fuel depots, sending global crude prices soaring and further escalating the fallout from his war with Iran
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s son, Mojtaba Khamenei, has been wounded in the Iran war, it emerged today after he was named as the country’s new Supreme Leader
The targeting of Iran’s fuel depots around Tehran on Saturday shocked Trump officials because of the scale of the strikes.
Video emerged showing flames engulfing neighborhoods across Tehran as civilian ran for safety. It is unclear how many casualties occurred from the Israeli operation.
‘We don’t think it was a good idea,’ a senior US official told Axios.
The Pentagon on Sunday announced the death of a seventh US service member as Iran announced ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s son Mojtaba as the new Supreme Leader.
The American soldier, who was not identified pending notification of next of kin, was seriously wounded on March 1 during an Iranian strike on a Saudi military base.
He died on Saturday night from his injuries as preparations were being made to transfer him to a US military hospital in Germany.
Khamenei’s son was reportedly injured in the war, it emerged today. In one report on his ascension to Supreme Leader on Iranian state TV, it refers to him as being wounded in the war.
The anchor describes him as ‘janbaz’, or wounded by the enemy, in the ‘Ramadan war,’ which is how media in Iran refer to the current conflict.
It does not elaborate on how he was injured, although his wife and father were killed in Israeli strikes on Tehran.
