• Trump says U.S. attack on Iran possible
• Omani mediator says nuclear deal parameters close
• U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem authorizes staff departures
• Iran warns retaliation against Israel and U.S. forces
President Donald Trump announced on Friday that the U.S. military strike against Iran was not ruled out despite signs by mediators that there was a nuclear deal to achieve, which caused more confusion in world markets and the Middle East. Addressing the press in his last speech before leaving the White House, Trump indicated that Iran could still be stopped through the use of military force to ensure it did not end up in possession of the nuclear weapons.
"Nobody knows. ... It would be sweet had we not to do it with military force, Trump said, but occasionally you must do it with. He also said that he was not excited about the tack of negotiations. The comments were issued as the US kept marshalling air and naval units to the area, making it the build-up of American forces in the area the greatest since 2003.
Reuters reported that the United States equity markets ended the day on a modest negative on Friday, having the S&P 500 falling 0.4 percent, having opened at a standstill the day before, as traders responded to geopolitical issues. The tone of Omani Foreign Minister Badr Albusaid who has been attempting to mediate indirect discussions between Washington and Tehran changed dramatically.
In a transcript Leaked by CBS before they were to air it, Albusaid indicated that significant progress was being achieved in Geneva and that a framework deal on larger lines can actually be achieved tomorrow. Iran he said, had agreed to irreversibly decrease its 60 percent near-weapons grade uranium stockpile to a natural, a neutral level.
Albusaidi also indicated that negotiators had worked out the agreement under the name of zero accumulation of enriched material in the future and complete international checks of nuclear plants. Later on the same, Trump repeated that he wanted no enrichment. I am not nothing pleased, and this highlights an incompatibility between the White House stance and the model outlined by Oman.
Embassy Move and Military Mob
Under increased tension, the State Department had approved nonemergency staff and family members in the U.S embassy in Jerusalem to leave Israel. A travel advisory advised personnel to think about leaving before the time the commercial flights become unavailable due to a volatile security environment. U.S. ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee sent a message to its staff asking them to leave, but stipulated doing so today, according to a U.S. official with knowledge of the message.
Emergency policy provisions would provide directions on how the government would meet the cost of evacuation. The alert did not specifically point at Iran but spoke of the increasing dangers of terrorism and civil unrest in Israel and the West Bank, armed conflict in Gaza and along borders with Syria and Lebanon. Israeli media announced that online, close to a dozen air tankers used in fueling its planes landed in Ben Gurion Airport, after previously stationing F-22 fighter jets in a base located in southern Israel.
Iran has threatened to respond with retaliation towards Israel and American troops in the area in case of any attack by the U.S. Due to the speculation of any possible supply disruption, Brent crude future has increased on Friday and settled more than 84 per barrel, 1.8 percent of the prior trading day gain as reported by Reuters. U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude rose 1.6% and this indicates premiums related to more geopolitics.
The U.S dollar index was up by 0.5 percent, and true to its name it was up by 0.2 percent the previous day, whereas gold prices were up by 1.3 percent compared with 0.4 percent a day ago, according to the Reuters data.
Reactions of political or of International Character
Iranian leaders denied the remarks of Trump. Brig. Gen. In the words of the Iran media, Abolfazl Shekarchi mentioned that U.S threats were baseless, boastful and delusional. Tehran has always been in denial of wanting to develop a nuclear weapon instead arguing that its program is purely civilian. The International Atomic Energy Agency has indicated that it does not see that Iran is in the process of developing a nuclear weapon.
Nonetheless, reports by Vienna, quoted by Reuters, of a secret IAEA report distributed to member countries said the inspectors had not been able to gain access to some facilities hit in previous U.S. attacks, which restricted their view on enriched uranium reserves. Vice President JD Vance also said in an interview that he never was aware whether Trump would eventually approve military action upon it but rejected the possibility of a long-lasting fight.
"The thought of us being years in a war in the middle east and there is no light at the end of the tunnel, there is no possibility that that will occur", said Vance. The Congress Philippines are considering strategies that would make any war on Iran impossible without a legislative act. The chief Democrat on the Armed Services Committee, Senator Jack Reed urged the administration to explain its goals and determine its possible costs.
In the interim, Marco Rubio, the Secretary of State will pay a visit to Israel to inform them on issues concerning the region, such as Iran and Lebanon, and at large the initiative of the administration to bring peace to Gaza. Further escalation may add another volatility to the global energy prices, analysts of the oil market explain, especially when a shipping route in the Persian Gulf proves to be blocked.
Reuters says that the energy shares performed better than the overall market on Thursday, increasing 1.2 percent versus a fall of 0.4 percent of the benchmark index. Financial markets are still hypersensitive to changes of rhetoric on both Washington and Tehran. Bond yields became a bit lower, where the U.S. 10-year Treasury yield dropped to 4.12 per cent in the current period as compared to 4.15 per cent in the last session suggesting augmented demand of safe-haven assets, according a report by Reuters.
This has been negated by the fact that there are very imminent military developments in the recent past due to the potential of impending military action. Albusaidi previously claimed that the negotiating process had made major progress that was big and unprecedented, suggesting the process as being more near the end than it had been in the previous months.
Nevertheless, Trump has remained to underline the fact that Iran should entirely abandon uranium enrichment. When questioned when he was going to make a decision on whether to strike or not, he replied to the reporters as saying that he would have the biggest scoop in the history.
The white house has as well declared Iran a State Sponsor of Wrongful Detention because of cases of imprisoned American citizens. It is believed there are four U.S citizens being detained in Iran.
The current state of negotiations between the governments of two countries is being both observed and scrutinized by the markets and government of the respective regions and with the possibility of reaching an agreement on the one hand and the threat of warfare on the other hand, the further perspectives in the nearest future are determined.
