US President Donald Trump frequently contradicts himself, sometimes in the same speech, social media post or even sentence. <\/p>\n
In the past 24 hours, he sent a torrent of mixed signals about the Iran war that raise more questions about the direction of the conflict and his administration’s strategy.<\/p>\n
Within the space of a few hours, Trump said he was considering winding down the war, his administration confirmed it was sending more troops to the Middle East and, in an effort to lessen the economic impact on global energy markets, the United States lifted sanctions on some Iranian oil for the first time in decades \u2014 relieving some of the pressure that Washington traditionally has used as leverage.<\/p>\n
Traditionally a time of rebirth, many are hoping a fresh start is coming for loved ones back home. (Source: 1News)<\/p>\n
The confusing combination of actions deepens a sense among Trump’s critics that there is no clear, long-term strategy for the war the US and Israel launched against Iran. <\/p>\n
Now in its fourth week, the war remains on an unpredictable path and a credible endgame is unclear even as the global economy is being roiled.<\/p>\n
\u2018Winding down\u2019 the war<\/p>\n
After another rough day in the financial markets, Trump said Friday afternoon on his social media network: \u201cWe are getting very close to meeting our objectives as we consider winding down our great Military efforts in the Middle East.\u201d<\/p>\n
Trump contended the US has adequately degraded Iranian naval, missile and industrial capacity and prevented Tehran from acquiring a nuclear weapon.<\/p>\n
The Republican president then suggested the US could pull out of the conflict without stabilizing the Strait of Hormuz, the channel through which about one-fifth of the world’s oil supply travels. <\/p>\n
World leaders are calling on Iran to ease its threats to vessels travelling through the Strait of Hormuz. (Source: 1News)<\/p>\n
The strait has been ravaged by Iranian missile, drone and mine attacks during the war.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Hormuz Strait will have to be guarded and policed, as necessary, by other Nations who use it \u2014 The United States does not!\u201d Trump wrote. But, in another contradiction, he said the US would help if asked, \u201cbut it shouldn’t be necessary once Iran’s threat is eradicated.\u201d<\/p>\n
While oil that traverses the strait is usually bound for Asia and other places rather than North America, the chaos still affects the United States. <\/p>\n
Oil is bought and sold globally, so a shortage in oil for Asian countries leads to bidding up prices on oil sold to companies in America, too.<\/p>\n
That fact, coupled with an Israeli strike on Iran’s gas fields and an Iranian retaliation that crippled a major terminal to ship liquefied natural gas from Qatar, helped tank US equity markets Friday, with the S&P dropping 1.5%. <\/p>\n
There also was a sharp increase in US fuel prices.<\/p>\n
Early US claims of a quick outcome haven\u2019t yielded the capitulation some predicted. (Source: 1News)<\/p>\n
More US military might to the Middle East<\/p>\n
Even as Trump said the US was close to winding down the war, the administration announced it was sending three more warships to the Middle East with about 2500 additional Marines. <\/p>\n
It was the second time in the week that the administration said it was deploying more forces to the conflict. The military says some 50,000 are supporting the war effort.<\/p>\n
Trump has ruled out sending in ground troops, though his administration has hinted at a possible deployment of special forces or similar units.<\/p>\n
The Marines being sent to the region are an expeditionary unit designed for quick amphibious landings, but their deployment does not mean a ground invasion is certain. Analysts have suggested it may require the presence of US forces on the ground to ultimately secure the strait.<\/p>\n
The surge in troops came just a day after news emerged that the Pentagon was seeking an additional US$200 billion from Congress to fund the war. <\/p>\n
That extraordinarily high number does not suggest that the war was being wound down.<\/p>\n
Sanctions on Iranian oil sales<\/p>\n
The administration said it would lift sanctions on the sale of Iranian oil, provided it was already at sea as of Friday. The move was an attempt to help lower skyrocketing energy prices by allowing freer sale of oil that Iran has let pass through the strait. <\/p>\n
It also extends a financial lifeline to the Iranian government that Trump is targeting.<\/p>\n
His administration has tried other methods to lower oil prices. It has tapped the US strategic petroleum reserve and lifted sanctions on some Russian oil. <\/p>\n
Yet Brent crude remained at US$112 per barrel Friday, and analysts say oil prices are likely to remain high for months regardless of the next steps in the war.<\/p>\n
The Iranian oil eventually would have reached another country, but now the United States and its allies can bid on it as well, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent wrote on X.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt present, sanctioned Iranian oil is being hoarded by China on the cheap,\u201d Bessent wrote. <\/p>\n
\u201cBy temporarily unlocking this existing supply for the world, the United States will quickly bring approximately 140 million barrels of oil to global markets, expanding the amount of worldwide energy and helping to relieve the temporary pressures on supply caused by Iran.\u201d<\/p>\n
While 140 million barrels may seem like a lot, that is only a couple of days worth of oil on the global market.<\/p>\n
Patrick De Haan, the head of petroleum analysis at GasBuddy, a US fuel-tracking service, said he does not expect the temporary suspension to have a major impact on gas prices. The de facto closure of the strait has a much greater effect, he said. <\/p>\n
\u201cPrices will likely still continue to rise so long as the Strait remains silent,\u201d De Haan said.<\/p>\n
And the contradictions in the position were obvious in Bessent’s post announcing the move, which labeled Iran \u201cthe head of the snake for global terrorism.\u201d <\/p>\n
He said the administration would take steps to prevent Tehran from cashing in on the sales, but it was unclear how that would be done.<\/p>\n
Even among some Republicans, the contradictions triggered rare public skepticism.<\/p>\n
\u201cBombing Iran with one hand and buying Iran oil with the other,\u201d Representative Nancy Mace of South Carolina posted on X Saturday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"US President Donald Trump frequently contradicts himself, sometimes in the same speech, social media post or even sentence.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":341420,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[65,42,5107,43,64,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-341419","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-donald-trump","tag-headlines","tag-middle-east","tag-news","tag-north-america","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/341419","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=341419"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/341419\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/341420"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=341419"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=341419"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=341419"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}