Trump Calls Iran ‘Crown Jewel’ Attack a Warning Shot as Oil Markets Hold Their Breath

The world’s oil markets watched with deep anxiety on Friday as Donald Trump announced that US forces had struck what he himself called Iran’s “crown jewel” — Kharg Island, the country’s primary oil export terminal — destroying every military installation on the island in a raid he described as one of the most powerful in Middle Eastern history. Trump had spent much of the day calling Iranian leaders “deranged scumbags” and promising intensified strikes, and the Kharg Island announcement appeared to be a deliberate demonstration of just how far the US was willing to escalate.
Oil prices have been highly volatile since the conflict began, driven by fears about Iran’s effective blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, through which approximately one-fifth of the world’s oil and gas supplies travel. Trump explicitly connected the Kharg Island strike to the shipping issue, warning that he would immediately reconsider his decision to spare the island’s oil infrastructure if Iran continued to interfere with safe passage through the strait. The warning was aimed squarely at both Tehran and the global energy market.
Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth, speaking from Washington, confirmed that more than 15,000 targets had been struck by US and Israeli forces combined since the war began. Israel separately announced over 200 strikes in the most recent 24-hour period, targeting Iranian missile launchers, weapons production sites, and air defence infrastructure. Hegseth described Iran’s leadership as desperate, hiding underground, and led by a supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, who had been wounded and disfigured and was communicating only through written statements.
The broader human toll of the conflict continued to mount across the region. Iran has reported over 1,300 deaths since the war began. Lebanon has counted over 600 killed and 800,000 displaced. Israeli strikes killed eight more in the city of Sidon. Hezbollah launched rockets at northern Israel, injuring close to 60. The United States has lost 13 service members, including six in a tanker aircraft crash in Iraq. France lost one soldier to an Iranian militia drone in the same country. Tehran’s civilian residents described a city under near-constant bombardment, with one shopkeeper counting six explosions in a single hour.
European governments reportedly opened diplomatic back-channels with Tehran in hopes of negotiating safe passage for their ships through the increasingly dangerous Strait of Hormuz. Italy denied being part of these talks. Meanwhile Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Oman, and the UAE continued to face Iranian drone and missile attacks on their infrastructure. Stock markets, which had fallen sharply on Thursday, staged a modest recovery on Friday as oil prices dipped slightly, though the underlying instability of a war with no end in sight kept investors on edge.