WASHINGTON, March 26. /TASS/. US President Donald Trump has said that he expected much worse economic consequences from the conflict with Iran.
"We had no choice. But I thought it was to be much worse," he said at the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) annual fundraising dinner. "I thought that the energy prices, oil price, would go up higher. I thought the stock market would go somewhat lower, but it didn't matter to me."
"What we had to do is to get rid of the cancer. We had to cut out the cancer. The cancer was Iran with a nuclear weapon," the US leader stated, adding that the US-Israeli operation against Iran is an "excursion into hell, excursion into a terrible place."
Bloomberg said on Wednesday, citing sources, that the Washington administration is assessing how a potential rise in oil prices to $200 would affect the US economy. Currently, the price of Brent crude oil futures for May delivery is hovering around $100 per barrel. Record highs were set in July 2008, when the price of Brent reached $147 per barrel.
The United States and Israel launched a military operation against Iran on February 28. Major Iranian cities, including Tehran, were struck. The White House justified the attack by citing alleged missile and nuclear threats from Iran. The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps announced a retaliatory operation, targeting sites in Israel. US military bases in Bahrain, Jordan, Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE were also hit. Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and some other key Iranian leaders were killed in the joint US-Israeli attack.
A spokesman for the Iranian Armed Forces’ Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters warned on March 11 that Iran would not allow any oil cargo related to the United States or its allies to pass through the Strait of Hormuz. On March 15, he pledged that Tehran would resort to any means necessary, including controlling shipping traffic in the Strait of Hormuz, to force the enemy to surrender.