1 April 2026
U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Tuesday that the coming days will be decisive in the war with Iran, warning of further escalation if Tehran does not reach a deal.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards hit back with a new threat, saying that they will target U.S. companies in the region in retaliation for attacks on Iran from Wednesday, listing 18 groups including Microsoft, Google, Apple, Intel, IBM, Tesla and Boeing.
Iran earlier set ablaze a fully loaded oil tanker off Dubai, its latest attack on merchant vessels in the Gulf or in the Strait of Hormuz since the United States and Israel attacked Iran on Feb. 28.
U.S. President Donald Trump threatened on Monday to obliterate Iran’s energy plants if it does not agree to a peace deal and open the strait, a vital waterway for global oil shipments that has effectively been blocked by Iran.
Hegseth says Trump willing to make deal
On Tuesday, Trump criticized countries that have not helped in the war, including France and Britain, saying they should find “some delayed courage” to take the strait and get their own oil. Sources told Reuters France had not allowed its airspace to be used to transport U.S. weapons for use in the war.
Hegseth, who said he visited U.S. troops in the Middle East on Saturday, said Trump was willing to make a deal and talks were ongoing and gaining strength, but that the U.S. was prepared to continue the war if Iran did not comply.
“We have more and more options, and they have less… in only one month we set the terms, the upcoming days will be decisive,” Hegseth said in Washington. “Iran knows that, and there’s almost nothing they can militarily do about it.”
The month-long conflict has spread across the region, killing thousands, disrupting energy supplies and threatening to send the global economy into a tailspin.
Oil prices head for record monthly gain
Crude oil prices briefly spiked again after the attack on the tanker, which can carry around 2 million barrels of oil worth more than $200 million at current prices.
Higher oil and fuel prices have also started to weigh on U.S. household finances and are a political headache for Trump and his Republican Party before November midterm elections.
The U.S. national average retail price of gasoline crossed $4 a gallon for the first time in over three years on Monday, data from price-tracking service GasBuddy showed. Tight global supplies pushed Brent crude futures up 4.7% to more than $118 per barrel, on course for a record monthly gain.
New attacks
The war has continued to spread, with Iran-aligned Houthis in Yemen entering the war by firing at Israel, and Türkiye reporting on Monday that a ballistic missile launched from Iran had entered Turkish airspace before being shot down.
The war has also revived conflict between Israel and the Iran-backed Lebanese group Hezbollah, while Iran, which has the highest casualty toll in the war, has fired at targets in Gulf Arab states, where the U.S. has military bases.
A strike on a Shi’ite Muslim congregation hall in the northwestern Iranian city of Zanjan killed three people, a provincial official told Iranian media.
The Israeli military said on Tuesday it carried out overnight airstrikes in Tehran targeting a ballistic missile warhead factory, weapons research sites and missile launch systems, under intelligence guidance.
Source: dailysabah
