Trump says he weighs massive attack on Iran

President Donald Trump said he is close to deciding whether to launch what he called “a massive attack” on Iran, raising the prospect of the largest U.S. strikes yet in a widening Middle East conflict that has pushed oil prices above $100 a barrel and drawn new warnings from the United Nations.

“I am considering a massive attack. Bigger than ever before. I am close to making a decision. We are all set for it,” Trump told Axios on Thursday. He said Israel “would join in two minutes if I ask them to,” then added: “We don’t need anybody.”

Trump acknowledged such a decision would have consequences but said he had not made a final determination. His comments followed earlier threats of “major military punishment” against Iran and Yemen’s Houthis after the Iran-backed group attacked two Saudi Arabian oil tankers in the Red Sea.

The confrontation has intensified across the Gulf. Al Jazeera reported that Iran launched missile and drone attacks on Jordan, Bahrain and Kuwait on Thursday after another night of U.S. attacks. Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said the strikes in Jordan and Kuwait targeted U.S. military assets and acknowledged attacking a telecommunications tower in Kuwait, saying it was retaliation for U.S. attacks on telecommunications towers in Iran. Kuwait later said its Abdali border crossing with Iraq had also come under attack by “hostile drones.”

“The armed forces’ retaliatory attacks will continue as long as the US attacks on the country’s infrastructure and coastal areas continue,” Iranian army spokesperson Mohammad Akraminia said, according to Al Jazeera. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi had warned Wednesday that Tehran would retaliate “an eye for an eye” against future attacks, including those on infrastructure.

The Houthis said they struck two tankers, the Encelia and the Layla, causing fires on both. There were no reports of casualties. The attacks came after the group announced a blockade of Saudi-linked shipping and Saudi ports, including Yanbu, a Red Sea port Riyadh has been using to ship oil to Asia during a conflict that has severely disrupted shipping through the Strait of Hormuz.

The Bab el-Mandeb Strait, which connects the Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden, is another vital chokepoint. About 12% of world trade, including a quarter of global container traffic, passes through it on routes between Europe and Asia via the Suez Canal. Lloyd’s List Intelligence said the Houthi attacks put Saudi oil shipments from Yanbu at risk and presented a “double whammy” on top of the Hormuz disruptions, adding that the threat “raises questions on the viability of this route.”

Reuters reported, citing four sources including two Iranians, that Iran transferred Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps personnel and military-related equipment on a flight from Tehran to Yemen on July 13, as Tehran was calling for the Houthis to blockade the Bab el-Mandeb.

Trump wrote on social media that if the Houthis attack again, “the US will hold Iran responsible” because the group is a “Surrogate and/or Proxy of Iran,” and that “major military punishment will be inflicted upon Iran and, of course, the Houthis, themselves.”

UN Secretary-General António Guterres told the Security Council the region was nearing disaster. “The situation is getting out of control. It is teetering on the edge of the unimaginable,” he said. “One crisis feeds another. One escalation triggers the next.”

Governments have begun taking precautions. The United Kingdom announced it was temporarily withdrawing diplomatic staff from Iran, Germany said it would withdraw two vessels from the Red Sea, Israeli cities opened bomb shelters, and the U.S. State Department warned Americans in the region that flights may be canceled.

Brent crude, the international benchmark, climbed past $100 a barrel Thursday. Janiv Shah, vice president at Rystad Energy, told Al Jazeera that much of the world’s spare production capacity has already been used and oil inventories are lower than when the war began, leaving fewer buffers against a prolonged supply disruption.

In Washington, the House of Representatives narrowly passed a resolution Thursday to halt U.S. military action in Iran, the second such warning to the president.