President Donald Trump is reportedly mulling over whether the U.S. could restart military strikes against Iran, but former counterterrorism chief Joe Kent believes the White House should pull troops out of the Middle East.
Trump Touts Big Decision
In an interview with Axios on Thursday, Trump said that he had a “big decision coming up” about whether the U.S. would want to “annihilate” Iran’s top officials or not. “Anything could happen with me,” he said. The report says that the comments come as Trump is set to meet with officials from Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the UAE and more in the coming week.
The White House did not immediately respond to Benzinga’s request for comment.
Kent took to the social media platform X following the interview, urging Trump to pull U.S. troops and ships out of Iran’s range. “All it would take is one lucky strike from the Iranians to escalate this on their terms,” he said, adding that the U.S. should not wait for “disaster” to strike and pull troops out.
“Use the economic leverage we have to offer sanctions relief & unfreezing of assets” in exchange for reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, he said, adding that the U.S.’s only goal should be to open the waterway. “There is no military solution, and the Iranians have said they won’t give Trump a deal,” he said.
Kent added that the U.S. should “restrain the Israelis, get out of the Middle East, and focus on issues here at home,” touting an America first approach.
IRGC Says It Struck Togo-Flagged Tanker
Meanwhile, the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations Center (UKMTO) reported on Thursday that a tanker had been struck in the Strait of Hormuz, over 18 miles off the coast of Khasab, Oman. “The crew have been reported as safe. No environmental impact has been confirmed at the time of this report,” the UKMTO said.
The IRGC later said it had struck and detained a Togo-flagged tanker named Trend in the Strait of Hormuz, according to a report by Al Jazeera. However, the vessel was not independently identified in the UKMTO report. The IRGC said the vessel was “incited” by the U.S. and that Iran remains in control of the waterway.
Oil, Gas Movement
At the time of writing this article, the West Texas Intermediate (WTI) futures contracts ending in October slipped 0.89% to $101.00, while Brent crude futures contracts ending in November also fell 1.17% to $103.59 at the time of writing this article.
Oil ETF United States Oil Fund (NYSE:USO) also fell 0.43% to $154.64 during overnight trading on Thursday. ProShares Ultra Bloomberg Crude Oil (NYSE:UCO) ETF also fell 0.48% during overnight trading to $52.
Gas prices continued rising as tensions escalated between the U.S. and Iran. According to the American Automobile Association (AAA) data, the national average price of gas was at $4.4386/gallon on Thursday. Diesel also climbed as the national average price almost reached $6.4 at $6.3956/gallon.
Check out more of Benzinga’s Future Of Mobility coverage by following this link.
Photo courtesy: Joshua Sukoff / Shutterstock
Login to comment