Trump warns Iran: ‘We’re going to beat the f***ing s*** out of them’
Donald Trump has vowed to hit back at Iran after it launched “surprise” strikes against US forces in the Middle East last night.
“We’re going to beat the f***ing s*** out of them. We’ll be hitting them hard. They’re going to get a beating,” the US President told Fox News on Wednesday.
Oil prices have risen as the latest flare-up in fighting brings an end to a days-long unofficial pause in strikes between the US and Iran.
Brent crude, the international benchmark for oil prices, rose more than six per cent to $89 per barrel on Wednesday.
Trump said that American forces had only minutes to react to strikes from Iran, though they managed to shoot down the missiles before they reached their targets.
The US has already retaliated for the strikes, launching an assault against Iran proxies in Iraq in partnership with Saudi Arabia. The US had told the Iraqi government about the attack ahead of time, he said.
Trump called Iran-backed militias a “cancer on the world” and said he is considering additional strikes against Iranian proxies.
US markets slip as oil rises again
Brent crude had fallen as low as $83 earlier this week as both sides paused strikes while an Omani delegation pursued talks over securing the passage of tankers through the Strait of Hormuz.
“There still remains some optimism that an agreement will be eventually brokered, but it looks set to be a long drawn-out process,” said Susannah Streeter, chief investment strategist at Wealth Club.
“Tensions have flared again in the Iran conflict, just as hopes had been mounting that fresh negotiations would lead to a resolution.
“But instead of steps forward there’s been a series of setbacks raising fresh concerns about the flow of energy supplies from the Middle East,” she added.
The FTSE 100’s oil majors jumped on Wednesday in response to rising oil prices. BP gained more than three per cent to 541p while Shell climbed 2.5 per cent to 3,316p.
London’s blue chip index reached its highest-ever level on Wednesday, rising to 10,951 in early trading. But the US markets opened lower as investors digested the latest flare up in tensions.
The tech-heavy Nasdaq shed 0.6 per cent to 24,741, while the blue-chip S&P lost 0.4 per cent to 7,399.