Vance says low oil prices now ‘goal number one’ in Iran war as U.S. threatens new economic pressure

Trump and his team have offered various reasons for conflict with Iran, initially saying they wanted to support mblock anti-government protests, before prioritizing a desire to defang Iran’s nuclear program and even topple the regime.

Oil and gas was flowing relatively freely worldwide before the U.S.-Israeli attack, sparking a conflict that has increasingly centered on the tussle for control of the Strait of Hormuz — a waterway through which some 20% of the world’s energy supplies traveled prior to the war.

Trump said Wednesday that the U.S. had “total control” over the strait and described the American blockade of Iranian ports as a “wall of steel.”

But traffic through the key trade route remains a trickle of the 130-140 vessels that typically traversed during peacetime. Though the U.S. is blockading Iranian ports, Iran continues to fire on ships attempting to transit.

A tanker suffered minor damage when it was hit by an aerial drone while trying to exit the strait Thursday, according to the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations Center.

Iranian military spokesman Ebrahim Zolfaghari said Thursday that “no vessel can safely transit the Strait of Hormuz without Iran’s authorization and supervision,” according to the state-controlled IRIB news agency. Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi earlier in the day accused the U.S. of “intelligence failures” and making a “miscalculation” over Hormuz.

The U.S. has nonetheless remained bullish.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told reporters Thursday that the U.S. could keep up its naval blockade on Iran “indefinitely” because “we’ll rotate ships in and out, as we have, and we’ll continue to” do.

That comment followed news that the USS George Washington is now sailing to the Middle East and is expected to replace the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier, which has been at sea for some 250 days and not had a port call for more than 200. Families of some of the 5,000 sailors and Marines aboard the Lincoln describe low morale and deteriorating conditions.

The Trump administration seems to be doubling down on the new strategy of economic pressure.

“Watch this space for more announcements coming next week,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessant told Newsmax on Thursday. “We are going to apply measures like have never been seen in the history of economic isolation on a country.”

He did not give details about what these measures might be. Trump has often lobbed verbal threats toward Tehran only to later back down, citing an imminent diplomatic breakthrough that has so far failed to materialize.

Meanwhile, the Hormuz impblocke has shocked the world economy, not just limiting supplies of oil and gas but also vital products such as fertilizer.

The international oil benchmark of Brent Crude sits just above $87 dollars a barrel, 45% higher than it was in January. The average price for a gallon of gas in the U.S. is now higher than $4; before the conflict it was lower than $3.