Trump Warns US ‘May Go a Little Further’ Against Iran as Treasury Targets Oil Lifeline

US President Donald Trump has warned that Washington could intensify its campaign against Iran, while his administration claimed its economic offensive was squeezing the country’s oil revenues and Tehran threatened a wider confrontation over shipping in the Persian Gulf.

“We’ve knocked the hell out of them, and we may go a little further,” Trump said, reiterating that Iran must never acquire a nuclear weapon.

The remarks brought together three strands of Washington’s confrontation with Tehran: pressure over its nuclear programme, efforts to cut its oil income and a dispute over maritime security that Trump has linked to the approaching American midterm elections.

TRUMP LINKS OIL TENSIONS TO MIDTERMS

In a separate Truth Social post, Trump accused Iran of attempting to push up crude prices before the November 3 elections. He alleged that Tehran was fabricating reports of maritime attacks and mines, while claiming that oil shipments through the Strait of Hormuz exceeded levels recorded before the conflict.

“Iran is doing everything they can to drive up the price of Oil prior to the U.S. Midterm Election,” he wrote.

The supplied reports did not include independent shipping data substantiating his claim about traffic through the strait or evidence establishing an Iranian effort to influence the elections through oil prices.

Trump also alleged that Iranian authorities had killed 75,000 protesters in less than seven months. The reports provided no independent corroboration for that figure.

Defending his approach, the president said he was taking steps that previous administrations should have taken. “We can’t let Iran have a nuclear weapon,” he said.

TREASURY CLAIMS PRESSURE ON KHARG ISLAND

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, meanwhile, claimed that Washington’s “Operation Economic Outcast” was cutting Iran’s oil lifeline.

Posting a video on X that purported to show a decline in tanker activity at Kharg Island, Iran’s principal oil-loading hub, Bessent contrasted an earlier scene of tankers with an apparently empty terminal.

“Before: tankers filled Iran’s main oil-loading terminal. After: no crude tankers in sight,” he wrote, describing the island as a “monument” to the Iranian leadership’s failure.

The supplied reports did not independently establish the footage’s timing or whether the images demonstrated a sustained halt in exports.

Bessent said the campaign aimed to deny Tehran resources for terrorism, nuclear procurement and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps leadership.

Announced on August 24, according to the reports, Operation Economic Outcast targets Iranian oil sales, financial networks and channels allegedly used to evade sanctions. Treasury has warned that entities facilitating Iranian money laundering or sanctions evasion risk losing access to the American financial system.

US Central Command separately claimed that a 100-day naval blockade had stopped Iranian seaborne trade, apart from approved humanitarian assistance, and prevented at least $25 billion in crude exports. Those estimates were not independently substantiated in the supplied material.

The claims concern different measures: Iranian exports through its ports and overall oil movements through Hormuz are distinct flows. Neither establishes the other.

IRAN THREATENS A WIDER CONFRONTATION

Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Navy offered a sharply different account of conditions at sea, accusing Washington of encouraging vessels to navigate a mined passage.

It warned that continued maritime incidents could extend the confrontation to American military bases in the region.

Iranian state broadcaster IRIB also reported the force’s claims that it had struck and set fire to four oil-carrying ships in the northern Persian Gulf, while three other vessels had hit mines in the western Strait of Hormuz.

The supplied reports included no independent confirmation of those incidents. Trump’s allegations that maritime attacks were being fabricated and Iran’s claims of strikes therefore remain competing accounts.

The exchanges follow Trump’s statement on Wednesday that Washington was not negotiating with Tehran and that “something” would happen “fairly soon”.

His latest warning left the nature of any further American action unspecified, as both sides combined claims of success with threats of escalation.

With inputs from ANI