Trump pledged to deal Iran an 'extremely powerful blow' Brent price exceeds $105

President Donald Trump made it clear in a 20-minute prime-time address to the nation from the White House that the U.S. is prepared to step up strikes on Iran in the near future. Here's the main thing he said:

- within two to three weeks, there will be an "extremely powerful strike" that will push Iran back to the "stone age."

- diplomatic efforts will continue, but if no agreement can be reached, the U.S. will launch "very powerful strikes against every Iranian power plant - and probably simultaneously."

- The U.S. is close to achieving its strategic goals in the campaign - to cut off Tehran's ability to build nuclear weapons and destabilize the region. "We're going to follow through. And we're going to do it very quickly - we're very close," Trump said.

- Once the conflict is over, the Strait of Hormuz will be unblocked "naturally," he said.

Trump's speech contained nothing fundamentally new and weakened traders' hopes for early de-escalation, writes Bloomberg. Shares in Asia, where trading is already underway, are declining. In particular, the index of the Tokyo Stock Exchange Nikkei 225 loses more than 1%. Futures on U.S. stocks are also in the minus: contracts on the Nasdaq index are falling by almost 1%. The cost of Brent crude oil with delivery in June rose by 4% - to $105.25 per barrel.

The main conclusion of Trump's speech is that the global oil deficit caused by Iran's blocking of the Strait of Hormuz is likely to continue in April, the agency notes. Earlier Bloomberg estimated that each day of blocking the strait leads to a loss of about 11 million barrels.

The US President is trying to find a possible way out of the conflict, which has lasted for the fifth week, Bloomberg writes. The war against Iran has become a shock for world markets and also turned into domestic political risks for Trump and his party. The cost of gasoline in the United States has exceeded the psychological mark of $4 per gallon, and polls show that a significant number of Americans do not support the campaign.

According to Bloomberg's source, Trump told one of his associates that he sees himself as the only leader capable of undermining the Iranian regime's capabilities and believes it is necessary to follow through.

In doing so, Trump has been sending conflicting signals regarding his strategy. On April 1, he said on the social media network Truth Social that the president of Iran's "new regime" had requested a ceasefire from the U.S. and that the U.S. would only consider ending hostilities if the Strait of Hormuz was opened. "Until then, we will destroy Iran," he added. Iran's Foreign Ministry denied the ceasefire request.

This article was AI-translated and verified by a human editor