Iran war sends oil prices to 4-year high as Hegseth faces new round of questions

A senior US official told CBS News on Thursday that President Trump has not been given the means to reduce US troops in Germany.

Senior military leaders could offer these options if requested, but none have been offered yet, the official said, adding that Germany continues to provide quiet support to US forces in the Middle East, which is being considered.

So far the only NATO member to outright reject any role in supporting US military operations in the Middle East is Spain, but President Trump and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz exchanged barbs this week.

In a short post on his Truth Social platform on Wednesday evening, Mr. Trump said “the United States is studying and reviewing possible troop reductions in Germany, with a determination to be made in the next short term.”

Merz said on Wednesday that his relationship with Mr. Trump was “as good as ever,” but said he was “skeptical from the beginning about what was started there with the Iran war.”

“We are suffering a lot in Germany and in Europe because of the consequences, for example, of the closure of the Strait of Hormuz,” said Merz.

Mr. Trump slammed Merz on Tuesday, saying on Truth Social: “German Chancellor, Friedrich Merz, thinks it’s OK for Iran to have a Nuclear Weapon. He doesn’t know what he’s talking about!”

Mr Trump was responding to Merz saying the day before that the US was being “humiliated” by Iran’s leadership and criticizing what he called Washington’s lack of involvement in the war.

Global Brent crude oil prices briefly crossed $126 a barrel early Thursday as stalled US-Iran talks raised doubts over the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz and a permanent end to the Iran war. The $126 mark for a barrel of Brent crude is a four-year high. The last time its price was so high was recently Russia is launching its ongoing all-out invasion of Ukraine in early 2022.

Brent crude for June delivery jumped 3.3% to $121.90 after briefly rising to $126 a barrel. Brent for July delivery rose 1.4% to $112.02. Benchmark US crude rose 1.3% to $108.28 per barrel.

Before the war began in late February, Brent crude was trading at around $70 a barrel.

The US has continued its blockade of Iranian ports and ships, prompting Iran to reimpose stricter restrictions on commercial vessels using the Strait of Hormuz, and the subsequent shutdown of tankers is driving up oil prices.

According to a Thursday report by Axios, citing two anonymous sources with knowledge of the planning, President Trump is expected to receive a briefing later in the day on new military resumption plans in Iran from Admiral Brad Cooper, commander of US Central Command. Axios said the options presented by the president would include a wave of “short and powerful” strikes on Iran, including against infrastructure.

“The collapse of negotiations between the US and Iran, and President Trump reportedly rejecting Iran’s proposal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, the market is losing hope for any immediate resumption of oil flows,” wrote ING Bank strategists Warren Patterson and Ewa Manthey in a research paper.

Oil prices vary depending on the type of crude oil, where it is sold and under what conditions, in futures contracts. By some measures, Brent has reached its highest level since its peak of $147.50 per barrel in 2008 during the global financial crisis.

CBS/AP

Iran’s president said on Thursday that the ongoing blockade of US ships in his country’s ports and on ships linked to Iran “will fail,” challenging President Trump’s repeated assertions that the economic pressure of the blockade will force Tehran to accept an end-to-war deal on its terms.

“Any attempt to close maritime borders or borders is against international law … and will fail,” President Masoud Pezeshkian said in a statement, warning that the ban that began on April 13 would “disrupt the lasting stability of the Persian Gulf.”

Iran is already working to build new warships to replace those destroyed by US and Israeli strikes, according to Iranian Navy Commander Admiral Shahram Irani.

His announcement, made by Iranian state TV, came nearly seven weeks after the US the submarine bombed the Iranian frigate IRIS Dena in the Indian Ocean, about 80 Iranian soldiers were killed, according to state media.

The new ships will be visible “in the near future,” Irani said, contradicting claims by the Israeli and American military that they have degraded Iran’s naval and weapons infrastructure.

Several U.S. officials with intelligence on the matter told CBS News last week that Iran has retained more military power than U.S. officials have admitted. About 60% of the marine arm of the powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps remains intact, despite statements from the White House and the Pentagon suggesting otherwise, the sources said.

Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell previously said that 92% of the Iranian military’s largest ships had been destroyed.

Written by Audrey Ellis

A statement issued by Iran’s new supreme leader, who has not been seen or heard directly since taking over from his father, said on Thursday that the Islamic Republic will protect its “nuclear power and missiles” as a national asset, as President Trump tries to force the country to abandon its nuclear weapons and program as part of a deal to end the war.

A statement by Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei was read aloud by a presenter on Iranian state television. He has not been seen in public since taking power after a US or Israeli airstrike on February 28 killed his 86-year-old predecessor and father, Ali Khamenei. US officials say Mojtaba Khamenei was seriously injured, and may not be able to function in a similar strike.

“Respectable Iranians inside and outside the country consider all of Iran’s identity-based, spiritual, humanitarian, scientific, industrial and technological capabilities – from nanotechnology and biotechnology to nuclear power and missiles – as national assets, and will protect them as they protect the country’s water, land and aviation,” the statement said.

Mr. Trump has expressed his hope that economic pressure on Iran due to the ongoing US blockade of that country’s ports will force Tehran to accept a peace deal that includes giving up its nuclear weapons program and giving up enriched uranium, which Iran has publicly refused to do.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth was asked by Democratic Rep. Chrissy Houlahan on Wednesday how many more months he expected to be needed to “complete a successful operation” against Iran.

“And do you think you will ask for billions of dollars from this body?” Houlahan added.

Hegseth said the U.S. military would never give an enemy an estimate of how long it would commit to a mission.

Hegseth was also asked about the cost of the war to the American people, Rep. Ro Khanna, California Democrat, asked: “Do you know how much it will cost the American people in terms of their increased gas and food costs next year because of the Iran war?”

“I would just ask you how much an Iranian nuclear bomb would cost,” Hegseth said.

Khanna accused Hegseth and the Trump administration of failing to deliver on the president’s campaign promises to lower the cost of living for Americans. He pointed out that Iran’s blockade of the Strait of Hormuz will cause American families to pay thousands of dollars for gas and food.

“I feel bad for all the people who voted for Trump. I feel bad for them because he betrayed them,” said Khanna.

The Iran war has costing an estimated $25 billion to datea Pentagon official told Congress during a hearing attended by Hegseth.

“We will make an addition through the White House that will come to Congress once we have fully assessed the cost of the conflict,” said Jules Hurst III, the acting secretary of the military for finance, testifying before the House Armed Services Committee.

CBS/AP

President Trump said Wednesday he is considering reducing the number of US troops in Germany, amid a spat with the German chancellor and the NATO ally over Iran.

“The United States is studying and reviewing possible troop reductions in Germany, with a determination to be made in the next short term,” he wrote on Truth Social.

The president grew increasingly frustrated with America’s allies in Europe, who wanted to distance themselves from the US-Iran war. He has threatened to leave NATO, calling the alliance a “paper tiger” and not entering the war. Act of 2023 prevents the president in withdrawing the US from NATO without approval from Congress.

German chancellor Friedrich Merz appeared to annoy Mr.

On Tuesday, Mr. Trump wrote on social media that Merz “thinks it’s OK for Iran to have a Nuclear Weapon” and he “doesn’t know what he’s talking about.”

Read more here.

In an interview with Fox News on Wednesday, the Vice President, JD Vance, denied an Atlantic report that he asked if the Pentagon misrepresented US missiles.

Vance said the story “gave me ideas and things that I’m supposed to have said that I’m 100% sure I never said.”

He added: “No one really knows what I’m thinking, no one close to me was talking to that reporter, because if that was the case, it would be a completely different story.”

Vance admitted that “Yeah, I’m concerned about, you know, our readiness,” but said it’s his job to worry about things like that.

“It’s really my job to ask these questions,” he said. “It’s my job to make sure we’re on top of all the issues.”