US-Iran war news LIVE: US Energy Secretary Chris Wright says the United States will release 172 million barrels of oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve as part of the International Energy Agency’s efforts to curb rising oil prices during the Iran war.
Wright said the release will begin next week and is expected to take approximately 120 days to complete based on the projected discharge rate. He added that the US plans to add about 200 million barrels over the next year.
Iran, meanwhile, warned that global oil prices could climb as high as $200 a barrel after its forces attacked merchant ships on Wednesday, while the International Energy Agency (IEA) urged a major release of strategic oil reserves to ease what could become one of the worst energy shocks since the 1970s, according to Reuters.
The conflict, sparked almost two weeks ago by joint airstrikes by the US and Israel, has already killed about 2,000 people, most of them Iranians and Lebanese. As the fighting spreads to Lebanon, it has disrupted global energy markets and shipping lanes, causing disruption to transportation and oil supplies around the world.
A surge in oil prices shows Iran may be using its most powerful tool, the ability to disrupt the global economy — and exposes what could be the United States’ biggest vulnerability in sustaining the campaign, a Reuters report said.
On Wednesday, tensions escalated as Iranian forces targeted commercial vessels near the Strait of Hormuz and around Dubai International Airport, expanding efforts to push out the oil-rich Persian Gulf region at a time of growing global energy concerns, the report said.
The US airstrike campaign inside Iran has now entered its 12th day, with no clear end in sight. According to the US commander, artificial intelligence has helped the military hit more than 5,500 targets across the country.
Meanwhile, an Israeli intelligence assessment says Iran’s new supreme leader, Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, was wounded early in the conflict.
US President Donald Trump, who has not committed to a timeline for military operations, signaled on Wednesday that he is not yet ready to declare an end to the Iran war.
He told a rally in Kentucky “we won the war” but the United States did not want to go back every two years.
“We don’t want to leave early do we?” he said. “We have to finish the job.
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