Washington. Global oil supplies are expected to be hit twice as hard this month as in March, the International Energy Agency said on Wednesday, underlining the urgent need to resolve the conflict over Iran, which US President Donald Trump said could end soon.
While Trump signalled he could wind down the war within weeks, even without a deal, he also stepped up threats to pull the United States out of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization defence alliance if European states did not help stop Iran from blocking the Strait of Hormuz.
“I was never swayed by NATO. I always knew they were a paper tiger, and (Russian President Vladimir Putin) knows that too, by the way,” Trump told Britain’s Daily Telegraph, saying he had moved beyond merely reconsidering US membership.
The remarks on the war underscored Washington’s shifting, and at times contradictory, statements about a conflict that has killed thousands, spread across the region and caused unprecedented energy disruption.
“We will be leaving the Iran conflict very soon,” Trump told reporters, saying that could be “within two weeks, maybe three.”
“Iran does not have to make a deal,” he said when asked if successful diplomacy was a prerequisite for the US to end what it calls “Operation Epic Fury”.
Trump to address nation on Iran
International Energy Agency head Fatih Birol said the main issue so far from Iran’s effective closure of the major global energy shipping route, the Strait of Hormuz, was the lack of jet fuel and diesel.
“We are seeing that in Asia, but soon, I think, in April or May, it will come to Europe,” Birol said in a podcast with Nicolai Tangen, the head of Norway’s sovereign wealth fund. The loss of oil in April would be twice that lost in March, he said.
Businesses around the world have been hit by the conflict, with cosmetics and tea among the latest sectors to report impacts.
The United States had previously threatened to intensify operations if Tehran did not accept a 15-point US ceasefire framework requiring that Iran not pursue nuclear weapons or uranium enrichment and fully reopen the Strait of Hormuz.
The White House said Trump would address the nation “to provide an important update on Iran” at 9 pm EDT on Wednesday (0100 GMT on Thursday).
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio told Fox News Channel’s “Hannity” programme there was potential for a “direct meeting at some point” and that the United States could “see the finish line”.
“It is not today, it is not tomorrow, but it is coming,” Rubio added.
