JERUSALEM, Israel – Operation Epic Fury is now in its third week, and the Strait of Hormuz and the price of gasoline have become major factors in the war. Meanwhile, Israel contends that Jerusalem and Washington are ahead of schedule in their war goals.
President Trump told reporters on Air Force One that he’s demanding assistance from some oil-dependent countries to help police the Strait of Hormuz.
“Because it is their territory, the president contended. “It’s a place from which they get their energy, and they should come, and they should help us protect it. You could make the case that we shouldn’t even be there at all because we don’t need it. We have a lot of oil.”
The U.S. attacked military installations – not oil facilities – on Kharg Island, Iran’s most important location from which to export its oil. It is Iran’s economic lifeline.
“We left just one little area left standing,” Trump explained. “At the standing part is where they have the pipes, the oil pipes come in, and we can do that on 5 minutes’ notice. We have it all locked and loaded and ready to go if we want to do it. We chose not to do it. I chose not to do it yet, but we’ll see what happens.”
One former Iran Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) commander, Hossein Komani Moghaddam, warned about the consequences of closing the Strait.
“This is not just about security,” he said, “It’s also about skyrocketing insurance costs, high risks, and extreme shipping expenses, and also, delays caused by stopping ships at sea (which) could push the price of oil to 200 dollars per barrel.”
However, U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright sees the disruption as temporary.
Speaking on NBC’s Meet the Press, Wright noted, “Americans are feeling it right now. Americans will feel it for a few more weeks. But, at the end, we will have removed the greatest risk to global energy supplies. We’ll go to a world more abundant in energy, more affordable in energy, and less risky for American soldiers and commerce in the Middle East.”
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Dr. Ophir Falk, who advises Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on foreign policy matters, told CBN News, “One thing is for sure, this blackmail that they’re doing with the oil just shows how terrible it would have been if they had nukes. They would blackmail the world with nuclear weapons. And there would be nothing we could do about it.”
Falk observed, “They’re able (the U.S. and Israel) to take out hundreds of their missile launchers. And we’ve taken their key leadership out. We’re going to continue to hit them as hard as possible. And actually, we have been hitting them, along with the American armed forces, of course. We’ve been hitting them harder than ever before.”
Falk insists there is a plan for the future.
“I can’t speculate, and can’t get into details exactly what our operational plans are,” Falk told us. “But I can tell you that we have a set plan with a lot of surprises. A lot of surprises (are) coming up at the end of the day. We’ve got to remove the existential threat posed by this ayatollah regime. They’ve been calling, ‘Death to America, Death to Israel’ for 47 years.”
Falk believes the conditions are being set for the Iranian people to take the future into their hands.
“It’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity,” he maintained. “We’ve been decimating this ayatollah regime, its capabilities. It’s a death cult that’s been terrorizing the world and its people for decades. They murdered. They slaughtered civilians, Iranian civilians, on the streets. You know, just a few weeks ago, thousands of them, maybe tens of thousands of them. And, at the end of the day, it’s up to the Iranian people to do the right thing. And I think they will do the right thing.”
Israel Defense Forces Spokesman Effie Defrin announced this weekend that the IDF has now hit more than 2,000 targets.
“We have an organized and well-planned combat plan. We still have thousands of targets in Iran, and we are producing additional targets every day. The regime is already weakened, and we continue to weaken it more and more each day. It is unstable, and it hides this from its citizens,” said Defrin.
The IDF is also sending more ground forces into Lebanon to target Hezbollah forces and create more security for residents in Northern Israel.
AI continues to be a factor in the war. President Trump slammed several media organizations for publishing AI-generated videos of Iranian boats attacking shipping in the Strait of Hormuz, and Prime Minister Netanyahu’s office published a video showing the Israeli leader getting a cup of coffee. During the video, he indicated he had only five fingers. It refuted an online AI video suggesting that he had six fingers and had been assassinated.
