Donald Trump affirmed that the surge in oil prices caused by the war with Iran will ultimately lead to a price decrease. However, he also revealed that he is preparing to ease oil sanctions on some countries to reduce energy costs.
On 9 Mar 2026 GMT+7, U.S. President Donald Trump held a press conference in Doral, Florida, stating that the United States has made significant progress in the war with Iran, suggesting that the operation is "quite complete."
"We are making great strides in achieving our military objectives, and some might say those goals are quite complete," Trump said. "We have thoroughly eliminated every Iranian force unit."
Trump added that the U.S. has struck more than 5,000 targets since the war with Iran began on 28 Feb, including "some very important targets," but the U.S. military is holding back "some of the most important targets for later if necessary."
"If we hit those targets, it would take them many years to rebuild, involving electricity production and many other things," he continued.
The U.S. leader also claimed that Iran continues to pursue nuclear ambitions despite three rounds of talks with U.S. officials that ended without agreement before the war broke out.
"Despite countless opportunities to abandon their nuclear ambitions—which they only recently acquired—they told Whitkoff... they openly said, ‘We want to keep building it,’" he summarized Iran's stance briefly: "Basically, the simple conclusion is ‘We want to continue building nuclear weapons.’"
Trump predicted that if the U.S. had not attacked Iran's nuclear facilities in June last year, "Iran would already have nuclear weapons and would have used them long ago, and at the very least, Israel would have been wiped out."
Donald Trump also condemned Iran as "extremely foolish" for attacking neighboring countries in retaliation for joint U.S.-Israeli strikes.
Iran’s neighbors "mostly remained neutral or at least were not inclined to get involved," Trump said, adding that after Tehran began its attacks, "those neighboring countries sided with us and started striking [Iran], which has actually been quite successful."
Trump further stated that this attack on Iran fulfills a promise he made in 2015 not to allow Iran to possess nuclear weapons.
Trump claimed that in the long term, the war with Iran will lower oil prices, despite current prices soaring to $120 per barrel before slightly falling due to disruptions in shipping through the Strait of Hormuz.
"The Strait of Hormuz will remain secure," he said during the press conference. "We are going to eliminate all these threats once and for all, resulting in lower oil and gas prices for American families."
Trump showed indifference to the impact of rising oil prices on American consumers, insisting that the supply shortage "affects other countries much more than the U.S."
"It doesn't really affect us," he said. "We have enormous oil reserves."
However, the U.S. president said he is preparing to ease certain oil-related sanctions they have imposed "to reduce oil prices," without specifying which countries are affected, only stating, "We have sanctions on some countries that we will lift until the situation calms down."
Notably, Iran and Russia are the two countries most heavily sanctioned and both possess vast oil resources. Recently, Trump approved an exemption allowing India to increase its oil imports from Russia, despite previously pressuring New Delhi heavily to stop buying Russian oil.
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Source:cnn