Iran threatened Wednesday to expand the war beyond the Middle East if the United States renews attacks, after President Donald Trump said he had come within an hour of restarting the military campaign.
Six weeks after Trump paused Operation Epic Fury under a ceasefire, talks to end the war have largely stalled.
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(Photo: Hamed Jafarnejad/ISNA/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via REUTERS, shutterstock, AP/Alex Brandon)
Iran submitted a new proposal to Washington this week, but its public description repeated terms Trump has already rejected, including demands for control of the Strait of Hormuz, compensation for war damage, the lifting of sanctions, the release of frozen assets and the withdrawal of U.S. troops from the region.
Trump said Monday and again Tuesday that he had come close to ordering a new bombing campaign, but held off at the last minute to give diplomacy more time.
“I was an hour away from making the decision to go today,” Trump told reporters at the White House on Tuesday.
Iran has repeatedly threatened to retaliate for any renewed attack by striking Middle Eastern countries that host U.S. bases. On Wednesday, it suggested it could also target sites farther away.
“If aggression against Iran is repeated, the promised regional war will extend beyond the region this time,” the Revolutionary Guards said in a statement carried by state media.
Chinese tankers cross Hormuz
Iran has largely closed the Strait of Hormuz to all vessels except its own since the U.S.-Israeli campaign began in February, causing the biggest disruption to global energy supplies in history. The United States responded last month with its own blockade of Iranian ports.
Two giant Chinese tankers carrying about 4 million barrels of oil exited the strait Wednesday, the latest sign that Iran is willing to ease restrictions for countries it considers friendly. Iran announced last week, while Trump was in Beijing for a summit, that it had reached an agreement to ease rules for Chinese vessels.
South Korea’s foreign minister said Wednesday that a Korean tanker was crossing the strait in cooperation with Iran.
Shipping monitor Lloyd’s List said at least 54 ships transited the strait last week, about twice the number from the previous week, but still only a fraction of the roughly 140 vessels that crossed daily before the war.
Pressure to end the war
Trump is under growing pressure to end the war, with soaring energy prices weighing on his Republican Party ahead of congressional elections in November. Since the ceasefire in late April, his public comments have swung between threats to resume bombing and claims that a peace deal is close, sometimes in the same remarks.
On Tuesday, Trump said the war would be over “very quickly.” Vice President JD Vance, who led the U.S. delegation last month in the only round of peace talks so far, also sounded optimistic.
“We’re in a pretty good spot here,” Vance told a White House press briefing.
The shifting U.S. position has sent oil prices rising and falling from day to day, though they have climbed week by week since early May. Benchmark one-month Brent crude futures eased about 1.5% on Wednesday morning to just under $110 a barrel, still well above last week’s level.
“Investors are keen to gauge whether Washington and Tehran can actually find common ground and reach a peace agreement, with the U.S. stance shifting daily,” said Toshitaka Tazawa, an analyst at Fujitomi Securities.
Ceasefire mostly holding
The U.S.-Israeli bombing campaign killed thousands in Iran before it was suspended under the ceasefire. Israel has also killed thousands more and displaced hundreds of thousands in Lebanon, where it launched operations against Iran-backed Hezbollah.
Iranian strikes on Israel and neighboring Gulf states have killed dozens.
The ceasefire with Iran has mostly held, although attacks on shipping and Gulf states spiked in early May after Trump announced a naval mission to reopen the strait. Trump canceled that mission, known as Project Freedom, after just 48 hours.
This week saw a new volley of drones launched at Saudi Arabia and the UAE. Both countries said the drones came from Iraq, where Iran-aligned militias operate.
Trump and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said at the start of the war that their goals were to curb Iran’s support for regional militias, dismantle its nuclear program, destroy its missile capabilities and make it easier for Iranians to topple their rulers.
But the war has not yet stripped Iran of its stockpile of near-weapons-grade enriched uranium or its ability to threaten neighboring countries with missiles, drones and proxy militias.
Iran’s clerical leadership, which had faced a mass uprising at the start of the year, has withstood the U.S.-Israeli assault with no visible sign of organized opposition.