{"id":550511,"date":"2026-03-21T05:08:09","date_gmt":"2026-03-21T05:08:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/550511\/"},"modified":"2026-03-21T05:08:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-21T05:08:09","slug":"day-21-of-middle-east-conflict-trump-considers-winding-down-war-but-officials-say-more-troops-deployed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/550511\/","title":{"rendered":"Day 21 of Middle East conflict \u2014 Trump considers \u2018winding down\u2019 war but officials say more troops deployed"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n The Trump administration Friday night granted a temporary license<\/a> for Iran to sell oil that has been sitting afloat on tankers.\n <\/p>\n

\n That\u2019s a lot of crude: 140 million barrels worth, which is enough to satisfy the entire world\u2019s oil demand for about one-and-a-half days, according to the US Energy Information Administration.\n <\/p>\n

\n The United States has sanctioned Iranian oil on and off for decades, and the Trump administration has blocked sales of the country\u2019s crude since it abandoned the Iran nuclear agreement in 2018.\n <\/p>\n

\n The optics of the temporary, one-month waiver on sanctions could be difficult. The United States is at war with Iran, and the license allows Iran to sell its sanctioned oil to help finance its war against the United States and its allies.\n <\/p>\n

\n But Iran was selling its oil anyway. China is Iran\u2019s biggest customer, and Iran was allowing its tankers through the otherwise blocked Strait of Hormuz. Meanwhile, global oil prices have surged over the course of the war to around $110 a barrel. The administration is trying to find any lever it can pull to keep oil prices in check while it wages its war \u2013 including desanctioning hundreds of millions of barrels of Russian<\/a> oil last week.\n <\/p>\n

\n The sale of Iranian oil probably would have been accomplished anyway \u2013 and this way, it can open up the sales to Western countries instead of going exclusively to China. And because of existing sanctions on Iran\u2019s finances, the country may be unable to obtain the oil proceeds, noted Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent in a statement on Friday<\/a>.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cIran will have difficulty accessing any revenue generated and the United States will continue to maintain maximum pressure on Iran and its ability to access the international financial system,\u201d Bessent said.\n <\/p>\n

\n The move received praise from David Malpass, former World Bank president and Treasury official during Trump\u2019s first term, who called the decision \u201ca strong economic step.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n This post has been updated with additional information.\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Trump administration Friday night granted a temporary license for Iran to sell oil that has been sitting…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":550512,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,41,39,42,40],"class_list":{"0":"post-550511","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/550511","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=550511"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/550511\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/550512"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=550511"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=550511"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=550511"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}