US-Iran war news LIVE: Trump says war with Iran will be won ‘very soon’, pre-emptive strikes also likely | Today’s news
US-Iran war news LIVE: US President Donald Trump expressed confidence on Sunday (local time) that Washington will win the conflict with Tehran “very soon”, adding that new military strikes ahead of US mid-term deadlines are “possible”. He made the remarks to Fox News on the sidelines of the PGA Tour Presidents Cup, noting that an end to the confrontation would cause global oil prices to plummet, while reiterating that the primary American goal is to deny Tehran a nuclear weapon. Trump said, “I think what’s going to happen is we’re going to win this war very soon, and once we win it, oil will go down to where it was before the war.”
Oil prices rise as Iran refuses to ease demands to reopen Strait of Hormuz
Oil prices rose again after Iran said it would not ease demands to reopen the Strait of Hormuz after Trump rejected a seven-day truce proposal to do so, dimming hopes for a quick resumption of traffic on the strategic waterway. Brent advanced to around $106 a barrel, while West Texas Intermediate climbed above $93. Tehran’s terms are something Washington could have agreed to about a year ago, Trump said in an interview with Axios on Sunday, saying Iran had outplayed it. The US president said he expects talks to resume this week, Axios reported. Oil prices fluctuated last week on mixed signals during the talks, recovering flows in the Middle East and uncertainty over US measures to curb record diesel prices.
Gold falls as Hormuz standoff keeps rates hike bets elevated
Gold fell after a weekly decline as the impasse over the Strait of Hormuz kept energy costs elevated and kept pressure on the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates further to combat sticky inflation. Bullion was trading around $4,265 an ounce, after ending the previous week up more than 2%. As the US-Iran conflict enters its eighth month, Brent crude is up 70% this year. Gold has traded in a relatively tight range between $4,230 and $4,510 an ounce this month as traders repeatedly recalibrated the Fed’s policy outlook, well below the record high of nearly $5,600 reached in January.
Iran refuses to ease demands after Trump rejects truce proposal
Iran on Sunday (local time) stuck to its terms for reopening the Strait of Hormuz, saying it would not ease its demands despite US President Donald Trump’s rejection of a seven-day truce proposal. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said: “The US president made some good remarks and also many contradictory ones, which unfortunately we hear from him often.”
Stay tuned to this LIVE blog for all the latest updates on the US-Iran war:
