The Iran War entered its 20th day on Thursday following a report from The Washington Post that the Pentagon will seek $200 billion to fund the war. The news seemingly clashes with multiple statements from President Donald Trump that the United States has already “won” the war.
Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth confirmed the budget request on Thursday morning adding that “that number could move.” Hegseth added, “it takes money to kill bad guys.”
Iran’s foreign minister Seyed Abbas Aragchi responded to the reported budget request, warning Americans about what he called “the trillion-dollar ‘Israel First tax’ that’s about to hit the U.S. economy.”
The U.S. government has not yet released its findings on an investigation into the U.S. strike on a school in Minab, Iran which killed at least 170 people, mostly young schoolgirls. Trump has suggested that the U.S. might not have been responsible for the attack, despite reporting that found otherwise.
Following a Wednesday attack on Iran’s South Pars gas field, Tehran followed through on its commitment to retaliate against the energy assets of Gulf states, with extensive damage reported across the region. Early Thursday morning, Iran struck Qatar’s Ras Laffan gas complex, which provides a fifth of the world’s liquefied natural gas, causing energy prices to surge.
QatarEnergy, which owns Ras Laffan, told Reuters that damage to two LNG trains, co-owned with ExxonMobil, may take three to five years to repair, cost about $20 billion annually in lost revenue, and force the cancellation of long-term supply contracts with Italy, Belgium, South Korea, and China.
The price of Brent crude oil briefly climbed to $119 on Thursday morning. U.S. gas prices continued to rise with AAA reporting the national average gas price at $3.88.
In response to the Iranian attack, Trump posted on Truth Social that “if Qatar’s LNG is again attacked,” the U.S. “with or without the help or consent of Israel, will massively blow up the entirety of the South Pars Gas Field.”
Trump claimed that it was “Israel, out of anger for what has taken place in the Middle East,” which “violently lashed out at a major facility known as South Pars Gas Field in Iran,” adding that “the United States knew nothing about this particular attack, and the country of Qatar was in no way, shape, or form, involved with it, nor did it have any idea that it was going to happen.” Trump’s statement contradicted reporting from Axios on the U.S. role in Israel’s strikes.
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Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Thursday the U.S. may allow roughly 140 million barrels of Iranian crude stranded on tankers to reach market in an effort to ease soaring prices. Commenting on the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, Bessent claimed that “we anticipated this” adding that the potential plan will only target “oil on the water.”
Journalist Steve Sweeney of Russia Today was wounded when an Israeli airstrike hit a bridge in southern Lebanon while he was reporting, with video showing the strike landing moments after he crossed. Sweeney and his cameraman remained conscious and were being treated for apparent shrapnel wounds. The attack comes a day after Israel said it would target all crossings over the Litani River linking southern Lebanon to the rest of the country.
Amnesty International on Thursday called on Israel to cease its attacks on healthcare workers in Lebanon, declaring that “Israel is deploying the same deadly playbook it used in 2024 in Lebanon to kill dozens of health workers and devastate healthcare services.”
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