Trump says Iran war could be over soon, but oil disruption would trigger harsher US strikes
Flames rise from an oil storage facility south of the capital Tehran as strikes hit the city during the U.S.–Israel military campaign, Iran, Saturday, March 7, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi) Flames rise from an oil storage facility south of the capital Tehran as strikes hit the city during the U.S.–Israel military campaign, Iran, Saturday, March 7, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
By JON GAMBRELL, WILL WEISSERT and SAMY MAGDY / Associated Press 9 min read
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — U.S. President Donald Trump said Monday that the war against Iran could be short-lived, but he left open the possibility of an escalation in fighting if global oil supplies are disrupted by the Islamic Republic, which chose a new hard-line supreme leader.
Oil prices briefly shot to their highest level since 2022 a day after Iran selected Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei to succeed his late father as Iran’s supreme leader. Investors saw it as a signal that Iran was digging in 10 days into the war launched by the United States and Israel.
But prices later fell and U.S. stocks rose on hopes that the war with Iran may not last much longer.
“We took a little excursion” to the Middle East “to get rid of some evil. And, I think you’ll see it’s going to be a short-term excursion,” Trump told Republican lawmakers at his golf club near Miami.
A coffin is carried during the funeral of mostly children killed in a strike Feb. 28 at a girls’ elementary school in Minab, Iran, Tuesday, March 3, 2026. (Abbas Zakeri/Mehr News Agency via AP)The coffin of Mehdi Hosseini, a man killed in a U.S.-Israeli strike, is carried for burial at Behesht-e Zahra cemetery in Tehran, Iran, Monday, March 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)Mourners pray during the funeral of Mehdi Hosseini, a man killed in a U.S.-Israeli strike, at Behesht-e Zahra cemetery in Tehran, Iran, Monday, March 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)This image taken from video provided by Iran state TV shows Mojtaba Khamenei, a son of Iran’s slain supreme leader, who has been named as the Islamic Republic’s next ruler, authorities announced Monday, March 9, 2026. (Iran state TV via AP)People gather in a rally to support Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, the successor to his late father Ayatollah Ali Khamenei as supreme leader, in Tehran, Iran, Monday, March 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)Vehicles drive past a gas station as a person puts gasoline in a vehicle on Sunday, March 8, 2026, in Portland, Ore. (AP Photo/Jenny Kane)Gas prices are visible on a marquee outside of a Kroger grocery store Monday, March 9, 2026, in Arlington, Texas. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)Gas prices are seen on a Shell station marqee Monday, March 9, 2026, in Arlington, Texas. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)Staff Photo by Seth Carpenter/ Vehicles pass by a gas station on West 20th Street on Monday, Mar. 9, 2026.Flames rise from an oil storage facility south of the capital Tehran as strikes hit the city during the U.S.–Israel military campaign, Iran, Saturday, March 7, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)Smoke rises following an Israeli airstrike in Dahiyeh, Beirut’s southern suburbs, Lebanon, Monday, March 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)Iraqis hold a portrait of the new successor to Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei at a bridge leading to the fortified Green Zone where the U.S. embassy is located in Baghdad, Iraq, Monday, March 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Hadi Mizban)
Hours later, Trump posted on social media: “If Iran does anything that stops the flow of Oil within the Strait of Hormuz, they will be hit by the United States of America TWENTY TIMES HARDER than they have been hit thus far.”
