Axios reports that Trump is unhappy that Israel bombed 30 Iranian fuel depots on Saturday.
From the report:
Israel’s strikes on 30 Iranian fuel depots Saturday went far beyond what the U.S. expected when Israel notified it in advance, sparking the first significant disagreement between the allies since the war began eight days ago, according to a U.S. official, Israeli official and a source with knowledge.
Trump’s anger is sure to rise with WTI jumping $15 at the open today to $108 (and as high as $111).
“The president doesn’t like the attack on the oil facilities. He wants to save the oil. He doesn’t want to burn it. And it reminds people of higher gas prices,” a Trump adviser told Axios.
The Trump administration has repeatedly floated plans to lower oil and gasoline prices. There have been rumors of releases from the SPR and a ban on US oil exports but we haven’t seen that yet. I wouldn’t rule out anything as this spike in oil prices is destined to be a major problem for the US and even moreso for its allies that don’t have significant oil production or reserves.
More from the report:
“•”We don’t think it was a good idea,” a senior U.S. official said.
•An Israeli official said the U.S. message to Israel was “WTF”. “
This is a strange war in that it’s both the US and Israel attacking but there doesn’t appear to be close co-ordination.
One of the early headlines for the war came from US Secretary of State Marco Rubio
“We knew that there was going to be an Israeli action, we knew that that
would precipitate an attack against American forces, and we knew that
if we didn’t preemptively go after them before they launched those
attacks, we would suffer higher casualties.”
He has tried to walk that back since but this attack also speaks to a rift. On the weekend, Netenhayu said there were further ‘surprises’ and escalation coming for Iran.
The market is looking at all this and struggling to see a path to any near-term de-escalation that will open the Strait of Hormuz.
This article was written by Adam Button at investinglive.com.
