Oil Tankers Burn Near Iraq As Iranian Strikes Defy Trump's Claim To Have 'Won' The War
HuffPost
The conflict has spread across the Middle East and prompted plans for a record release of strategic oil reserves to dampen one of the worst fuel shocks since the 1970s.
DUBAI/TEL AVIV/WASHINGTON, March 12 (Reuters) - Iran set ablaze two tankers in Iraqi waters as it stepped up attacks on oil and transport facilities across the Middle East, warning the world should be ready for oil at $200 a barrel in defiance of President Donald Trump’s claim that the U.S. had already won the war.
Unleashed with joint U.S. and Israeli air strikes on Iran almost two weeks ago, the war has so far killed around 2,000 people and thrown global energy markets and transport into chaos. The conflict has spread across the Middle East and prompted plans for a record release of strategic oil reserves to dampen one of the worst fuel shocks since the 1970s.
The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said more than 1,100 children had been killed or injured.
At a campaign-style rally in Kentucky ahead of November midterm elections in which his Republican party is trailing badly, Trump said the United States had won the war but didn’t want to have to go back every two years.
“We don’t want to leave early do we?” he said on Wednesday. “We got to finish the job.”
Oil prices exceeded $100 per barrel on Monday, reaching peaks unseen since 2022, as the Iran war triggered a global energy crisis.
The officials also claimed that the sharp increase in gasoline prices resulting from the Iran war would last only weeks.
Bahrain has accused Iran of striking a desalination plant as the regional war expands and targets more civilian sites in Gulf states.
It was not immediately clear what caused the blast or who was involved, the Oslo police department said in a separate statement.
Among the injured are three minors: one 16-year-old and two 17-year-olds, according to the executive director of the Trujillo Health Network.
The Milan Cortina Winter Paralympics has officially opened with some countries boycotting the opening ceremony because of the return of the Russian flag to the global sports stage.
Oil prices hit their highest levels in almost two years, and Qatari officials warn they could spike as high as $150 per barrel.
A blackout has left millions of people without power in Havana and the rest of western Cuba in the latest outage on an island struggling with dwindling oil reserves and a crumbling electric grid.
Their entry into the war could pose a significant challenge to the embattled authorities in Tehran and could also risk pulling Iraq further into the conflict.
In a new text approved by Pope Leo, a top Vatican commission warned it can lead to an unrealistic search for a perfect figure.
The goal would be to create room for Iranians opposed to the Islamic regime to rise up, they noted.
Ten people were killed when protesters breached the compound’s outer wall after the killing of Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
The military campaign has killed Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, sunk at least 10 Iranian warships and struck more than 1,000 targets.