Middle East & North Africa
Trump: “Iran is making up fake attacks” on tankers to push up oil prices before the midterms
President Trump accused Iran of inventing strikes and mines to raise oil prices before the November 3 midterms, saying more oil now passes Hormuz than before the conflict began. He also admitted the war has a political cost and left open further military action.
US President Donald Trump accused Iran on Thursday, October 22, of trying to push up the price of oil ahead of the November 3 midterm elections. “Iran is doing everything it can to raise the price of oil before the U.S. midterms,” he wrote on Truth Social. “They are even making up fake strikes, mines and anything else, because more oil is now passing through the Strait of Hormuz than before the conflict began,” according to The Jerusalem Post.
In the same post Trump accused the Iranian regime of killing protesters and repeated that Tehran will not get a nuclear weapon. The post came hours after the IRGC Navy said, through the Iranian news agency IRNA, that four tankers were hit and caught fire overnight. The Guards had already announced strikes on four ships in the Persian Gulf and had warned of mines in the Strait. Those are Iranian claims that have not been independently confirmed.
“There is a price”
Speaking to reporters at the White House before leaving for a campaign rally in Sioux City, Iowa, Trump admitted the war has a political cost. “There is a price, and I knew it as soon as I did it,” he said. “But we cannot let Iran have a nuclear weapon.” Asked about public reaction, he said Americans have mixed feelings. “On one hand they love it, because I’m doing what other presidents should have done. On the other hand, maybe not,” he said. He added that the US has already done serious damage to Iran but “we may take it a little further”, leaving open the possibility of new military action.
The Strait of Hormuz remains the focal point of the confrontation, as attacks on merchant ships and restrictions on navigation threaten the flow of oil and affect energy prices. The midterms will decide control of the House of Representatives, where all seats are up, and one third of the Senate, which is why the cost of energy has become a central theme of the campaign. Further incidents occurred this week, such as the tanker hit by a projectile off Buka in Oman. Tehran, for its part, links the opening of the Strait to conditions it sets for Washington.
