Iran tells world 'get ready for $200 a barrel'

Iran's military command said on Wednesday the world should be ​prepared for oil to hit $200 a barrel, as three more ships came under ​attack in the blockaded Gulf. Iran fired at Israel and targets across the Middle East on Wednesday, demonstrating it can still fight back and disrupt energy supplies despite what the Pentagon has described as the most intense US-Israeli strikes yet. Oil prices that shot up earlier this week have eased and stock markets have rebounded, with investors betting for now that US President Donald Trump will find a quick way to end the war he began alongside Israel nearly two weeks ago.
'Get ready for oil be $200 a barrel, because the oil price depends on regional security which you have destabilised,' Ebrahim Zolfaqari, spokesperson for Iran's military command said in ⁠comments addressed to the United States. After offices of a bank in Tehran were hit overnight, Zolfaqari also said Iran would respond with attacks on banks that do business with the United States or Israel. People across the Middle East should stay 1,000 metres from banks, he added. A senior Israeli official told Reuters Israeli leaders now privately accept that Iran's ruling system could survive the war. Two other Israeli officials said there was no sign Washington was close to ending the campaign.
In the latest public display of defiance, huge crowds of Iranians took to the streets on ​Wednesday for funerals for top commanders killed in air strikes. ⁠They carried caskets and brandished flags and portraits of slain Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and his son and successor, Mojtaba. The Iranian military said on Tuesday it had launched missiles at a US base in northern Iraq, the US naval headquarters for the Middle ​East in Bahrain, and at targets in central Israel. Explosions rang out in Bahrain, while in Dubai four people were injured by two drones that crashed near the airport. In Tehran, residents said they were growing accustomed to nightly air strikes that have sent hundreds of thousands of people fleeing to the countryside and contaminated the city with black rain from oil smoke.
Three more merchant ships were struck in the Gulf by unknown projectiles, according to agencies that monitor maritime security, raising the number of ships reportedly hit since the war ‌began to 14. Crew were evacuated from a Thai-flagged bulk freighter after an explosion caused a fire. A Japan-flagged container ship and a Marshall Islands-flagged bulk carrier also sustained damage. Oil prices, which shot up briefly ​to nearly $120 a barrel on Monday, have since settled around $90, suggesting investors are betting Trump will be able to halt the war and reopen the strait soon.
But governments are still discussing drastic action. The International Energy ​Agency was expected to ‌recommend ⁠releasing 400 million barrels from global strategic reserves, a record. That would take months and amount to just three weeks' flow through the strait. US and Israeli officials say their aim is to end Iran's ability to project force beyond its borders and destroy its nuclear programme, though they have also invited Iranians to topple the country's clerical rulers.
Israel's Defence Minister Israel Katz said on Wednesday the operation 'will continue without any time limit, as ​long as required, until we achieve all objectives and win the campaign.” But the longer the war goes on, the greater the risk to the global ⁠economy, and if it ​ends with Iran's system of clerical rule surviving, Tehran is certain to declare victory.
Iran's police chief Ahmadreza Radan said on Wednesday anyone taking to the streets would be treated 'as an enemy not a protester. All our security forces have their fingers on the trigger.' Iran has said it will not let oil through the strait until US-Israeli attacks cease, and it will not negotiate. Trump has threatened to hit Iran 'twenty times harder' if it blockades the strait, but US officials have not revealed any military plan to unblock it.
In Israel, explosions rang out before dawn from air defences intercepting missiles. Sirens sent Israelis to shelters. Israel also launched a barrage on Beirut ​aimed at rooting out the Lebanese group Hezbollah, which has fired into Israel from Lebanon in solidarity with Tehran. More than 1,300 Iranian civilians have been killed since the US and Israeli ​air strikes began on February 28, according to Iran's UN ambassador, Amir Saeid Iravani. Scores have also been killed in Israeli attacks on Lebanon. Iranian strikes on Israel have killed at least 11 people and two Israeli soldiers have died in Lebanon. Washington says seven US soldiers have been killed and around 140 have been wounded.
Three vessels ​have been hit by unknown projectiles in ​the Strait of Hormuz, maritime security and risk firms said on Wednesday, bringing the number of ships struck in the region since the Iran conflict began to at least 14. Shipping along the narrow strait has come to a near standstill since the United States and Israel began strikes on Iran on February 28, preventing exports of around a fifth of the world’s oil supply and sending global oil prices surging ⁠to highs not seen since 2022. — Reuters