Iran War Live Updates: As Attacks Shake Markets, Trump Seeks to Reassure Americans

 

Iran War Live Updates: As Attacks Shake Markets, Trump Seeks to Reassure Americans

President Trump said he would do whatever was necessary to lower oil prices, and his Treasury secretary said the government might even take the paradoxical step of lifting sanctions on some Iranian oil.

https://www.nytimes.com/live/2026/03/19/world/iran-war-news-trump-oil

 

Here’s the latest.

Global markets experienced a day of gyrations on Thursday as the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran entered its 20th day, amid fears of a deepening global energy crisis and as oil prices surged to $119 a barrel, an increase of nearly 10 percent, before settling at $108.65.

 

President Trump, seeking to reassure Americans, said that the crisis would be temporary. “It will be over with soon,” he said, even as the Pentagon sought $200 billion in funding for the war — a significant sum adding to the costs of an already divisive campaign.

 

A new round of attacks on major energy facilities in Iran and Qatar on Wednesday raised concerns about energy supplies. To ease the crisis, the United States was weighing lifting sanctions on millions of barrels of Iranian oil, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told Fox Business on Thursday. Still, the S&P 500 ended the day 0.3 percent lower.

 

Oil prices have been surging since the start of the conflict on Feb. 28, with international crude futures up almost 50 percent in less than three weeks.

 

As oil prices eased on Thursday afternoon, it allowed nervous investors to exhale slightly. But the market swings were a reminder of what analysts say is a stubborn truth: Prices will likely not dip meaningfully until the region is secure.

 

“It really comes down to when tankers can securely flow through the strait again,” said Jim Burkhard, the head of research for oil markets at S&P Global Energy. “But then you will have bottlenecks even after that opens.”

 

The pullback on oil prices on Thursday came after Mr. Trump told reporters in the Oval Office that he had directed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel to cease attacks on Iran’s energy fields. Hours later, the Israeli leader said during a news conference in Jerusalem that it was no longer possible for Iran to enrich uranium or manufacture ballistic missiles after 20 days of bombardment.

 

He provided no evidence and said nothing about Iran’s stockpile of highly enriched uranium that was buried under the country’s nuclear site at Isfahan by U.S. strikes last year. The White House did not address his comments.

 

While an end to the conflict would reopen the shipping routes through the Strait of Hormuz, serious damage to infrastructure would be longer lasting.

 

Here’s what else we are covering:

Ground troops: During a meeting with the Japanese prime minister, Sanae Takaichi, in the Oval Office on Thursday, Mr. Trump was asked about using ground troops in Iran. He said: “I’m not putting troops anywhere. If I did, I wouldn’t tell you.

 

Missile attacks: Strikes on Wednesday and Thursday hit the Ras Laffan energy hub in Qatar, reducing the country’s natural gas export capacity by 17 percent and causing an estimated loss of $20 billion in annual revenue, according to Saad Sherida al-Kaabi, the country’s energy minister and head of QatarEnergy, the state-owned energy company. He said damage from missiles would take three to five years to repair and would affect supply to markets in Europe and Asia.

 

Saudi Arabia: Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister said that the country reserved the right “to take military actions if deemed necessary” to protect itself from Iranian attacks.

 

Death tolls: Iran’s ambassador to the United Nations said last week that at least 1,348 civilians had been killed since the start of the war. On Wednesday, a Washington-based human rights group, the Human Rights Activists News Agency, reported that at least 1,369 civilians had been killed. The number of Lebanese killed rose to more than 1,000, Lebanon’s health ministry said on Thursday. At least 14 people have been killed in Iranian attacks on Israel, officials have said. The American death toll stood at 13.