President Trump Says Rising Oil Prices Benefit the United States

JAKARTA - President Donald Trump said on Thursday that the United States benefited from rising oil prices because of its status as the world's largest oil producer.

"The United States is the largest oil producer in the world, far ahead of others, so when oil prices go up, we make a lot of money," President Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform, as reported by Anadolu (12/3).

However, President Trump said his main focus remained on preventing Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons.

"What is much more interesting and important to me, as President, is stopping the evil Empire, Iran, from having nuclear weapons, and destroying the Middle East and, indeed, the world," he said.

"I will never let that happen," President Trump said.

It is known that tensions have increased in the Middle East, following the attacks by the United States and Israel on Iran on February 28, which Tehran said killed more than 1,300 people, including Ali Khamenei, the former supreme leader, and more than 150 students.

Since then, Iran has launched drone and missile attacks targeting Israel, Jordan, Iraq, and Gulf states hosting US military assets.

Tehran has also effectively tightened the Strait of Hormuz since March 1. This narrow waterway transports around 20 million barrels of oil per day and about 20 percent of global liquefied natural gas trade.

Iran's military command said on Wednesday the world should prepare for oil prices reaching $200 a barrel as three more vessels were attacked in the blocked Gulf.

Oil prices, which surged earlier this week, have eased and stock markets have rebounded, with investors betting that US President Donald Trump will find a quick way to end the war he started with Israel almost two weeks ago.

However, there has been no easing of tensions on the ground, nor any sign that vessels can safely sail through the Strait of Hormuz, where a fifth of the world's oil has been blocked behind a narrow channel along the Iranian coast in the worst energy supply disruption since the 1970s oil shock.

"Prepare for oil prices to reach 200 US dollars per barrel, because oil prices depend on regional security that you have destabilized," said Iranian military command spokesman Ebrahim Zolfaqari, in comments aimed at the United States, Al Arabiya and Reuters reported.

President Trump himself on Wednesday promised "extraordinary security" for oil tankers passing through the Strait of Hormuz, as Iran tightened its grip on the vital sea lanes amid the United States-Israel war with Tehran.

"I think you're going to see tremendous security, and it's going to happen very, very quickly," President Trump told reporters at the White House when asked how he would ensure security on the waterway vital to global oil trade.

A day later, the new Supreme Leader of Iran Mojtaba Khamenei in a statement read by a presenter on state television on Thursday said Iranian forces must keep the strategic Strait of Hormuz closed.

"The lever to block the Strait of Hormuz must really be used," Khamenei said of the strategic waterway through which a fifth of the world's oil traffic passes, Al Arabiya and AFP reported.

It was his first public statement since he was proclaimed Iran's new Supreme Leader on Sunday and after the killing of his father and predecessor Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in a US-Israeli attack.