Trump threatens to escalate Iran war, but says it could end soon

WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump has threatened to escalate the war with Iran if it blocked oil shipments from the Middle East, even as he predicted a quick end to the conflict.

Trump’s warning came at the end of a day that saw global financial markets seesawing on concerns that Iran’s security establishment was rallying behind new Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei and was not prepared to back down any time soon.

Trump said the United States had inflicted serious damage on Iran’s air force and navy and predicted the conflict would end well before the initial four-week time frame he had laid out, though he has not defined what victory would look like.

He warned that US attacks could rise sharply if Iran sought to block tanker traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, which handles one-fifth of the world’s oil supply.

“We will hit them so hard that it will not be possible for them or anybody else helping them to ever recover that section of the world,” Trump said at a news conference.

In response, Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said it would not allow “one liter of oil” to leave the region if attacks from the United States and Israel continue.

“We are the ones who will determine the end of the war,” a spokesperson said, according to state media.

The conflicting signals sent markets on a rollercoaster, with oil prices surging and stock markets nosediving before swinging in the other direction after Trump’s prediction of a quick end to the war and reports of a possible ease in sanctions on Russian energy.

Khamenei, 56, a cleric with a power base among the security forces, has been declared unacceptable by Trump, who has demanded Iran’s unconditional surrender. Monitoring Desk