By Parisa Hafezi and Bo Erickson
DUBAI/HEBRON, Kentucky, March 12 (Reuters) – Two tankers were ablaze in Iraqi waters on Thursday, an apparent escalation in Iranian attacks that have cut off Middle East energy supplies, defying President Donald Trump’s claim to have already won the war he launched two weeks ago.
Images, verified by Reuters as having been filmed from the shore of the port of Basra, showed the ships engulfed in massive orange fireballs that lit up the night sky.
Iraqi authorities said the vessels had been attacked overnight by Iranian boats laden with explosives. At least one crew member was killed.
Hours earlier, three other ships had been struck in the Gulf. Iran’s Revolutionary Guards claimed responsibility for at least one of those attacks, on a Thai bulk carrier that was set ablaze, which the Guards said had disobeyed their orders.
Another container vessel reported being struck by an unknown projectile near the United Arab Emirates on Thursday, a maritime security authority said.
The war, which was launched by the United States and Israel and has so far killed around 2,000 people, has caused the biggest disruption to global energy supplies since the oil shocks of the 1970s.
GLOBAL ENERGY SUPPLIES DISRUPTED
Undermining U.S. and Israeli claims to have knocked out much of Iran’s stock of long-range weapons, more drones were reported on Thursday flying into Kuwait, Iraq, the UAE, Bahrain and Oman.
Oil prices that had come down earlier in the week after Trump said the war would soon be over blasted back above $100 a barrel.
Iran has said it would not allow oil through the world’s most important energy trade route – the Strait of Hormuz that runs along its coast – until U.S. and Israeli attacks ceased, and it would not conduct any negotiations with Washington.
Citibank announced on Thursday it would temporarily shut its branches in the UAE, a day after Iran said it considered banks to be legitimate targets and warned Middle East residents to stay 1,000 metres from them. HSBC has shut branches in Qatar.
Thursday’s surge in oil prices came despite the announcement the previous day that developed countries would release 400 million barrels of oil from their strategic reserves, nearly half from the United States.
That is by far the biggest-ever coordinated intervention into the oil markets. But it would take months to carry out and account for just three weeks of supply from the blockaded strait.
“The only way to see oil prices trade lower on a sustained basis is by getting oil flowing through the Strait of Hormuz,” ING analysts said. “Failing to do so means that the market highs are still ahead of us.”
TRUMP SAYS ‘WE WON’
Trump, whose Republican Party is trying to hold on to Congress in an election later this year, has repeatedly tried to calm energy markets this week by saying the war will soon be over and the surge in oil prices will be short-lived.
But he has not fully explained how the war will end, or presented a plan to reopen the blockaded strait. U.S. and Israeli officials say the aim is to destroy Iran’s missile and nuclear programmes, but Trump has also demanded Iran’s “unconditional surrender” and the power to determine its leaders.
“You never like to say too early you won. We won,” Trump told a campaign-style rally in Hebron, Kentucky, on Wednesday. “In the first hour it was over.”
The United States had “virtually destroyed Iran”, he said. But he added: “We don’t want to leave early do we? We got to finish the job.”
But three sources familiar with the matter told Reuters that U.S. intelligence indicated that Iran’s leadership was still largely intact and not at risk of collapse any time soon.
TEHRAN SEEKS PROLONGED ECONOMIC SHOCK
Iran has made clear over the past two days that its strategy now is to impose a prolonged economic shock on the world to force Trump to back off.
The spokesperson for Iran’s military command said on Wednesday that the world should prepare for oil prices of $200 a barrel because of instability caused by the U.S. That would be well above the highest oil price in history of $147.27 in July 2008, weeks before the start of the global financial crisis.
Trump said Wednesday’s announcement of the huge release of reserves would “substantially reduce oil prices as we end this threat to America and the world”.
Tony Sycamore, analyst at IG, said the attacks on the ships in Iraq looked like “a direct and forceful Iranian response” to the reserves release.
Iran also hit fuel tanks in Bahrain, and drones struck oil storage facilities at Oman’s Salalah port on Wednesday. Saudi Arabia said it had also intercepted several drones heading towards its Shaybah oilfield on Thursday.
(Reporting by Parisa Hafezi in Dubai, Alexander Cornwell in Tel Aviv and Bo Erickson in HEBRON, Kentucky, and Reuters bureauxWriting by David Brunnstrom, Lincoln Feast, Peter GraffEditing by Michael Perry and Alex Richardson)
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