U.S. President Donald Trump speaks to members of the media before boarding Air Force One for travel to Florida, at Joint Base Andrews, Maryland, U.S., March 13, 2026.
| Photo Credit:
KEVIN LAMARQUE
escorting ships through the Strait of Hormuz to protect them
from Iranian attack, as his administration searches for ways to
ease high oil prices fuelled by the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran.
Trump issued a temporary waiver for some purchases of
sanctioned Russian oil, a move that drew criticism from U.S.
allies in Europe for potentially helping Russia fund its war
with Ukraine.
Prices have been whipsawing on Trump’s changing comments on the
likely duration of the Iran war, which has prompted Iran to
attack vessels in the strait, the conduit for a fifth of the
world’s oil.
Asked when the U.S. Navy will start escorting tankers
through the Strait of Hormuz, Trump told reporters on Friday,
“It will happen soon.”
In a social media post, Trump said the U.S. military had
attacked and “totally obliterated” military targets on Iran’s
small Kharg Island which serves as the export terminal for 90%
of the country’s oil shipments and lies about 300 miles (483 km)
northwest of the strait.
But he said he had decided to leave oil infrastructure on
the island intact. “However, should Iran, or anyone else, do
anything to interfere with the Free and Safe Passage of Ships
through the Strait of Hormuz, I will immediately reconsider this
decision,” Trump said.
Trump earlier said Iran’s attacks on shipping were “a
last-ditch effort.” The U.S. would continue to hit Iran “very
hard over the next week,” he said in a Fox News interview that
was recorded on Thursday and aired on Friday.
Crude oil prices climbed higher on Friday. Brent futures
were up 2.68% to $103.14 a barrel.
WAR ON IRAN EXTENDS ACROSS MIDDLE EAST
After nearly two weeks of war, 2,000 people have been killed,
most in Iran, but many in Lebanon and a growing number in the
Gulf, which has for the first time in decades of Middle East
conflicts found itself on the front line.
Several million people have been displaced from their homes. As
Israeli warplanes pounded Beirut’s suburbs with air strikes,
Lebanon’s interior minister said authorities were unable to
accommodate the hundreds of thousands of people who have sought
refuge in the capital.
Israel also dropped leaflets threatening Gaza-scale devastation
as it deployed more troops to fight Iran-backed Hezbollah and
warned of more attacks on Lebanon’s infrastructure.
U.S. forces have also suffered casualties. The U.S. military
confirmed that all six crew members aboard a refuelling aircraft
that crashed in western Iraq were dead.
Iran fired more missiles and drones at Israel, and Iranian
drones were reported flying into Kuwait, Iraq, the United Arab
Emirates, Bahrain and Oman.
The Israeli military launched strikes across Tehran. It said
its air force had struck more than 200 targets in western and
central Iran over the past day, including ballistic missile
launchers, air-defence systems and weapons production sites.
The U.S. was sending additional forces to the region,
including the USS Tripoli along with its Marine expeditionary
unit, two U.S. officials, speaking on the condition of
anonymity, said. The amphibious assault ship, currently in Asia,
is capable of carrying fighter jets. In total, 2,500 additional
Marines will be sent to the Middle East, along with additional
sailors.
Iranian Press TV said a woman was killed by an airstrike
close to a rally in Tehran for Quds (Jerusalem) Day, one of many
across Iran in support of Palestinians living in
Israeli-occupied territory.
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, Foreign Minister Abbas
Araqchi and security chief Ali Larijani all appeared in videos
verified by Reuters openly attending the rally in a gesture of
defiance, despite an assertion by U.S. Defense Secretary Peter
Hegseth that the leadership was “cowering” underground.
“People are not afraid of these attacks. As you can see,
people have come out in this rain, under these hardships,”
judiciary chief Gholamhossein Mohseni-Ejei said at the march.
“We will not back down in any way.”
IRAN’S NEW LEADER VOWS TO KEEP STRAIT SHUT
Iran’s new supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, in his first public
comments on Thursday, vowed to keep the Strait of Hormuz shut
and urged neighbouring countries to close U.S. bases on their
territory or risk being attacked themselves.
Khamenei’s comments were read out by a television presenter
and it was not clear why he had not appeared in person or
recorded his comments.
Hegseth told a news briefing that the U.S. knew he was
“wounded and likely disfigured”. An Iranian official told
Reuters on Wednesday that Khamenei was lightly injured but
continuing to work.
European powers are trying to work out how to defend their
interests in the region, and France has been consulting with
European, Asian and Gulf Arab states over the past week with a
view to putting together a plan for warships eventually to
escort tankers through the strait, French officials said.
With gasoline and diesel prices rising at pumps in the United
States and around the world, the U.S. on Thursday issued a
30-day licence for countries to buy Russian oil and petroleum
products already at sea – where it is not uncommon for
consignments to be sold or change their buyer.
Vice President JD Vance on Friday said senior Trump
officials were working on addressing rising oil prices as well
as other effects of the Iran conflict.
“When the President takes action to make sure the American
people are safe, we’ve got to do everything that we can to deal
with the consequences of that economically,” Vance said during a
visit to Rocky Mount, North Carolina.
The International Energy Agency said on Thursday the war was
creating the biggest oil supply disruption in history.
Tom Fletcher, the U.N. under-secretary general for
humanitarian affairs and emergency relief coordinator, said in a
statement on Friday that the closure of the strait could have
“immense impact” on the delivery of supplies like food, medicine
and fertilizer for humanitarian operations.
The war has sparked a critical shortage of cooking gas in India,
a country with longstanding ties to Iran. Iran has allowed two
Indian-flagged liquefied petroleum gas carriers to sail through
the Strait of Hormuz, four sources told Reuters.
UKRAINE AND EUROPE ANGERED BY U.S. EASING SANCTIONS
The U.S. waiver on Russian oil was welcomed in Moscow but left
Kyiv and its allies angry.
“Six members of the G7 expressed a very clear opinion that
this was not the right signal,” German Chancellor Friedrich Merz
told a press conference in Norway. “We then learned this morning
that the American government has apparently decided otherwise.”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said the move could
provide Russia with $10 billion, adding: “It certainly does not
help peace.”
Trump said he thinks Russian President Vladimir Putin may be
helping Iran a “little bit” in the interview with Fox News Radio
that aired on Friday.
Published on March 14, 2026