Trump declares US has ‘decimated’ Iran as Tehran warns it's ‘fully prepared’ for war

Oil prices rose early Thursday in Asian trading following news that the United States ordered nonessential diplomats and family members to leave its missions in Saudi Arabia amid escalating Houthi attacks on the kingdom.

Brent crude futures climbed $1.29, or 1.2%, to $110.11 a barrel as of 12:34 a.m. GMT, rebounding after settling largely flat Wednesday, Reuters reported.

U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude gained 97 cents, or 1%, to $98.12 a barrel, recovering from a 67-cent loss in the previous session.

The price increase reflected growing concerns about oil supply security in the Middle East as regional geopolitical tensions intensified, the outlet said.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned Wednesday that intelligence had uncovered Iranian plans to target the election and threatened a military response if Tehran interferes.

“We have clear warnings from military intelligence and the Mossad that Iran and its proxies are considering ways to influence the elections,” Netanyahu told the Jerusalem Post.

“If they do, it’ll be a big mistake for them because we’ll respond with force and might they can’t even imagine.”

He also asserted that Israel’s security is contingent on preventing the regime from rebuilding its forces.

“About a year ago, Iran was on the verge of developing several atomic bombs,” Netanyahu said. “If we hadn’t acted in Operation Rising Lion and after that with Operation Roaring Lion, they’d have atomic bombs to destroy us.”

“President Trump recognizes what I recognize,” he said. “As long as the Iranian regime is there, they’ll reconstitute themselves.”

President Donald Trump warned on Wednesday that a nuclear-armed Iran could plunge America into chaos, accusing the regime of being "nuts."

“I never said we're going to stop Iran from having a nuclear weapon. You know, we have to do it.”

“I think if they had a nuclear weapon, we would be a tinderbox,” he said.

“Our lives would be very different because they are nuts. They are nuts. They don't play games with me,” he warned.

President Donald Trump warned Wednesday that Tehran would unleash a nuclear weapon within an hour of obtaining one, portraying the Iranian regime as one of the world's gravest threats.

“Is a very small price to pay the number one state sponsor of terror, the most evil nation on earth,” he said of the regime in Iran.

“If they had a nuclear weapon, they'd use it within one day or one hour. I would say one hour,” the president said at a rally in South Carolina.

President Donald Trump said Wednesday that the U.S. could leave Iran now but wants to ensure its military gains last, while referring to the Strait of Hormuz as the "Trump Strait."

"I terminated Barack Hussein Obama's JCPOA, or the Iran nuclear deal, which was a road to a nuclear weapon for Iran. I terminated it," the president said before adding that it was a "road to a nuclear weapon."

"We obliterated Iran's nuclear enrichment capacity with Operation Midnight Hammer, a beautiful operation, and Operation Epic Fury."

"And we defeated them militarily, financially and otherwise. And now we're ensuring that, and as you know, Iran will never have a nuclear weapon," he added.

"We could leave now, but we want to make sure it lasts for a long time."

"It's amazing what we did. Our military is unbelievable. We have a blockade on the Trump Strait," he said.

"I call it the Trump Strait. How do you think the Arabs would like me calling it? Do you think they'd be thrilled?" Trump said in South Carolina.

The Trump administration has ordered non-emergency U.S. government employees and their families to leave Saudi Arabia as deadly Houthi attacks intensify across the kingdom, raising the stakes as President Donald Trump weighs direct military action against the Iran-backed group.

State Department spokesperson Tommy Pigott confirmed Wednesday that the mandatory departure order applies only to Saudi Arabia, pushing back on reports that Washington was preparing a broader evacuation of diplomatic personnel across the Gulf.

"The U.S. Department of State issued an ordered departure for non-emergency U.S. government employees and their family members in Saudi Arabia only," Pigott said.

The order comes amid a surge in Houthi missile and drone attacks that has left civilians dead, disrupted air travel and sent Saudi Arabia scrambling for additional missile defenses.

"Iranian-supported Houthis have increasingly engaged in hostilities against Saudi Arabia, including attacks on civilian airports and other critical infrastructure resulting in civilian casualties and severe travel disruptions," Pigott added.

President Donald Trump is weighing whether to launch direct U.S. military strikes against the Houthis, whose expanding missile and drone campaign has increasingly threatened Saudi cities, airports and energy infrastructure.

This is an excerpt from a report by Fox News Digital's Morgan Phillips.

President Donald Trump’s endorsement of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu gave him a campaign boost just days before next week's election, but with polls now suggesting Netanyahu still faces an uphill battle to secure a governing majority, according to reports.

“It looks unlikely that Trump alone can help him make up such significant ground when nothing else has worked,” Dahlia Scheindlin, a veteran pollster and prominent Israeli political analyst, told Politico on Wednesday.

Netanyahu’s coalition held 60 of the 120 seats in the Knesset before parliament was dissolved in July, and recent polls suggest his bloc could lose ground in next week’s election.

A Walla survey published Tuesday projected just 48 seats for Netanyahu and his allies — 13 short of the 61 needed to form a government.

Meanwhile, a separate Channel 12 poll put his bloc at 51 seats, and the Walla poll showed the party of Gadi Eisenkot, Netanyahu’s main challenger, widening its lead over the prime minister’s Likud party to four seats, though neither bloc secured a majority, the outlet said.

French President Emmanuel Macron completed a state visit to Qatar on Wednesday, meeting with Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani.

In a joint statement shared on X, the leaders condemned Iranian military attacks across the region and expressed support for President Trump’s Gaza peace plan and U.N. Security Council Resolution 2803, calling for implementation of the ceasefire, withdrawal of Israeli forces under agreed arrangements and unhindered humanitarian aid to Gaza.

The leaders also called for restoring freedom of navigation in the Strait of Hormuz without restrictions or fees. 

U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) showcased Marines training with drones on the flight deck of the USS Portland in the Arabian Sea on Wednesday.

"U.S. Marines train with small unmanned aerial systems on the flight deck of USS Portland (LPD 27) as the ship sails in the Arabian Sea," the command said on X.

"As an innovation battle lab, CENTCOM fields a variety of emerging technologies to rapidly equip deployed service members with cutting edge capabilities," CENTCOM added.

The United Arab Emirates has nominated veteran diplomat Lana Nusseibeh as the next United Nations secretary-general, a move that could break a deadlock over who will succeed Antonio Guterres, the Times of Israel reported.

Nusseibeh’s nomination, submitted in a letter from UAE President Mohammed bin Zayed to the heads of the U.N. General Assembly and Security Council, follows six rounds of voting that failed to produce a candidate acceptable to all five permanent members of the Security Council.

Nusseibeh currently serves as a minister of state in the UAE Foreign Ministry and previously served as the country's ambassador to the United Nations from 2013 to 2024.

President Donald Trump declared Wednesday that the United States has “decimated” Iran, claiming Russia and China have largely stayed on the sidelines.

“We have decimated Iran. Russia has had very little input into Iran,” Trump said.

“They have certainly — they could have done a lot more, but I'm not sure they did almost anything. That's something that you have to take into consideration also.”

“So we've beaten Iran. We continue to beat Iran and Russia and China, frankly, have not been certainly much of a player. And we appreciate that,” he added.

Trump also touted U.S. efforts to prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons, calling them among his administration's greatest achievements.

“I think it's one of the greatest. I think it's one of the greatest things we've done,” Trump said.

“We've stopped Iran from having a nuclear weapon. It's one of the best things that we've done and it took a lot of courage to do it because no other president was willing to do it,” he said.

Trump went further, claiming Iran would have already launched a nuclear attack if the United States had not intervened.

“And if we didn't do it, Iran would right now have already used massive nuclear weapons,” he said.

President Donald Trump said Wednesday he was pleased that Russia and China have largely refrained from intervening in the war with Iran, warning against any action that could jeopardize ongoing efforts to end a war.

“We have been pretty happy with Russia that they have not gotten involved with Iran,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office.

“We've we've taken Iran down to levels that they've never seen before. They're very low.

“Their military is completely gone. Their anti-aircraft, just about everything is gone, including their economy.

“The only thing not gone is inflation. They have 301% as of this morning. The money is gone. Everything's gone.

“I would say that a very important element is the fact that Russia and China have not participated or participated in a much smaller way than they could have.

“So I'm very happy about that. The last thing I want to do is, upset an apple cart where we're getting close to settling a war," he said.

Iranian parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf met with Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei on Wednesday, according to Iranian state media.

During the meeting, the Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) said the two discussed the war with the United States, military developments and strategies to strengthen Iran’s defense and economy.

Mojtaba Khamenei has not been seen in public since late February, when he went into hiding following joint U.S.-Israeli airstrikes that killed his father, former Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

The meeting came as Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said on X that if Washington “chooses war over diplomacy, it’ll certainly result in an even greater strategic failure.” 

Iran wants a diplomatic deal with Washington but is prepared for war if the U.S. continues its military campaign, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi warned Wednesday in a Financial Times op-ed.

"Iran seeks a just and honourable deal with the US. To achieve that outcome, the White House must demonstrate seriousness and a genuine will to permanently end its aggression," Araghchi wrote.

He said Iran is "firmly committed to seeking a dignified peaceful resolution to the conflict, we are also fully prepared to defend ourselves."

Araghchi accused President Donald Trump of entering the war "on the basis of fundamentally erroneous assumptions about Iran’s fortitude" and said Tehran has "no trust whatsoever in the sincerity of the US administration’s professed desire for peace with Iran."

He also warned that Iran's geographic position gives it "unparalleled leverage over maritime traffic through the Strait of Hormuz."

Promoting the op-ed on X, Araghchi warned that if the U.S. chooses war over diplomacy, it would result in "an even greater strategic failure." 

President Donald Trump is touting the impact of U.S. and allied military strikes against Iran, claiming the attacks have ended the regime’s nuclear ambitions.

Speaking to supporters, Trump declared, “We’re knocking the shit out of them,” saying the bombardments destroyed key weapons facilities, weakened Iran’s air defenses and eliminated its ability to develop nuclear weapons.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu describes his goals with the United States in the last two years of President Donald Trump's time in office on "Life, Liberty & Levin."

President Trump dismissed concerns over rural voter dissatisfaction with the economy, arguing that high gasoline prices are a small price to pay to stop Iran from getting a nuclear weapon. He says oil prices will drop once the war ends.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to topple the Iranian regime on Wednesday, warning that Tehran is still working to develop nuclear weapons.

"The Iranian regime still hasn't learned its lesson. Mojtaba Khamenei, the 'dictator of the day,' has decided to follow in his father's footsteps, and Iran is once again trying to develop its bombs of death," Netanyahu said during a campaign speech on Monday.

"There is only one way to remove this threat once and for all – to topple the regime in Iran. And that is my directive to the IDF, the Mossad and the security services," he added.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Tuesday that Riyadh is competing with allies around the world — and the U.S. military itself — for a limited supply of the interceptors needed to defend against missile attacks.

"I also talked to Saudi Arabia today; they’d like interceptors. Israel would like interceptors. We would like interceptors. Every country in the world would like interceptors," Rubio said, calling them "probably the most in-demand product right now in the defense field."

The U.S. cannot meet every request, Rubio acknowledged. American forces must maintain minimum air-defense requirements at bases around the world, while the sophisticated interceptors are expensive and take time to manufacture even as production increases.

"We have our own needs too," Rubio said.

Army Veteran of the 75th Ranger Regiment Will Thibeau analyzed the United Kingdom sending fighter jets to Saudi Arabia to defend critical infrastructure against Houthi drone strikes. Thibeau says that America should "appreciate" the U.K.'s efforts.

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian says Tehran has submitted a proposal to the U.S. on Wednesday.

“Our response is clear. We have submitted our plan to the US. If they are sincere about advancing the negotiations and reopening the Strait of Hormuz, they should meet our conditions, and everything will be resolved," Pezeshkian said.

Fox News senior correspondent Alicia Acuna reports on the arrests of two suspected spies for Iran in the U.K.

The arrests come after a plot targeting a U.S. air base in the U.K. earlier this month.

Saudi Arabia is turning to foreign allies to fend off Houthi missiles and drones, exposing a military vulnerability that could soon become President Donald Trump's problem.

Britain announced Tuesday it would send Typhoon fighter jets to defend Saudi cities and critical infrastructure. Egypt is already assisting the kingdom and Israel has offered to step in to help.

Riyadh, meanwhile, is asking Washington for more interceptors, and Trump is weighing whether the U.S. should intervene and strike the Iran-backed Houthis directly.

The reinforcements could help shield Saudi cities and critical infrastructure. They do little, however, to eliminate the Houthi launchers and weapons threatening them from Yemen.

"The theme right now, I think, is defensive or defensive-minded," Jason Campbell, a senior fellow at the Middle East Institute, told Fox News Digital.The question, he said, is whether that evolves into something "more offensive or kinetic."

The Houthis have already demonstrated their ability to punch through Saudi defenses. Their strikes and attempted strikes on the kingdom more than doubled in a single week this month, according to the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project, with airports in Riyadh, Jizan, Najran, Dammam and Abha targeted since Oct. 5.

The most devastating barrage struck King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh, killing at least 13 people and wounding more than 300.

Other attacks have targeted Saudi energy infrastructure, turning the Houthi campaign into a threat not only to the kingdom's security but also to the economic stability Riyadh has spent years trying to project.

Saudi Arabia has spent decades building one of the region's most sophisticated militaries. Riyadh spent an estimated $83.2 billion on defense last year, making it the eighth-largest military spender in the world, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute. Its arsenal includes U.S.-made F-15 fighter jets, Patriot missile defenses and advanced radar systems.

This is an excerpt from an article by Fox News' Morgan Phillips.

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian called on the U.S. to lift sanctions against Tehran to make way for negotiations on Wednesday.

Pezeshkian argued that the U.S. cannot constantly raise the intensity of sanctions while also demanding a dialogue with Tehran.

"Threats and sanctions must be practically lifted in action, so that the ground for dialogue can be provided. One cannot increase the intensity of sanctions and pressures every day, close the paths of interaction, and simultaneously speak of negotiation," Pezeshkian wrote, according to an X translation from Persian.

"Dialogue with the language of threats and pressure has no meaning," he added.

International Maritime Organization Secretary-General Arsenio Dominguez discussed efforts to communicate with Tehran as attacks escalate and commercial shipping faces growing risks.

Sea mines have resurfaced as a threat in the Strait of Hormuz, where Iran claimed Oct.17 that two oil tankers caught fire after striking the explosives, raising fresh alarms over the safety of one of the world's most critical shipping lanes.

This came as the International Maritime Organization (IMO) warned that sea mines pose a serious threat to vessels navigating the strategic waterway and while Tehran continues to maintain its own unauthorized shipping corridor inside its territorial waters.

"The traffic separation scheme, the information that we have is that they still have mines. And of course, whilst the conflict is ongoing, it's very difficult for us to use third parties to verify that it is clear of these hazards," IMO Secretary-General Arsenio Dominguez told Fox News Digital.

"So in the meantime, we cannot guarantee that a vessel that intends to transit that route will not be hit by a mine."

Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) navy said Saturday that two oil tankers caught fire after striking naval mines while crossing the Strait of Hormuz, Reuters reported, citing Iran's official Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA).

State media also said both tankers were carrying about 2 million barrels of crude oil, according to Reuters.

IRNA also reported that the vessels had switched off their positioning and radar systems and attempted to use a route through the strategic waterway that Iran had not authorized.

This is an excerpt from an article by Fox News' Emma Bussey.

This is an excerpt from an opinion article by Dr. Rebecca Grant, vice president of the Lexington Institute.

Take President Donald Trump’s threat on the MOAB seriously. The U.S. Air Force’s GBU-43 Massive Ordnance Air Blast weapon, nicknamed the "mother of all bombs," could figure prominently in any new airstrike plans targeting Iran.

"The mother of all bombs is not nuclear," Trump said. "This is just an extremely large bomb. It’s like a tiny nuclear bomb, but the mother of all bombs is one big bomb, but it’s not nuclear."

"I wouldn’t use nuclear. We don’t have to," Trump said.

He’s right. The U.S. has a range of precision weapons that can knock out any suspicious target in Iran, including the construction activity at Pickaxe mountain. Admiral Bradley Cooper, Commander, United States Central Command, has detailed knowledge of high-value Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps sites that could be MOAB targets.

President Trump has said he won’t strike Iran prior to the mid-terms, but clearly he is looking at Central Command’s strike briefing charts in great detail. And he wants Iran to know it.Here are four reasons the MOAB is a formidable threat.

Trump ordered the first use of a MOAB in Afghanistan in April 2017

The MOAB was dropped on April 13, 2017, on a cave complex in Nangarhar Province, Afghanistan. "There was no surprise," then-Secretary of Defense James Mattis said of the MOAB. "The battle was going on, and we were going to use what was necessary to break ISIS," he added. Mattis said he wasn’t going to waste time "digging into tunnels to count bodies"; CNN reported 94 ISIS fighters killed.

Too big for U.S. bombers

While America’s B-2, B-52 and B-1 bombers can easily carry the weight of the 21,000-lb. MOAB, the problem is the shape. The MOAB used in 2017 was too big to fit on the standard racks and rotary launchers in the bomber weapons bays. For the Afghanistan mission, the MOAB was loaded on a special cradle and slid out of the back ramp of an MC-130 while in flight. Don’t worry about the MC-130s. Yes, the basic C-130 is a cargo plane, but the Special Operations versions like the MC-130 are adapted for clandestine missions. This is also where air dominance over Iran comes in handy. The initial weeks of Operation Epic Fury knocked out Iran’s Russian-built integrated air defenses. Subsequent strikes by CENTCOM have prevented Iran from reconstituting their air defenses. MC-130s on a MOAB mission might also get help with electronic warfare and other attack suppression from the Space Force, U.S. Air Force, and U.S. Navy carrier-based aircraft like the EA-18G, F-35C and E-2D.

Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps has threatened to cut undersea cables that lie in the Strait of Hormuz.

The cables allow Gulf countries to connect to international data networks, carrying critical financial and other information.

IRGC General Yadollah Javani issued the threat on Iranian state television on Wednesday, saying cutting the cables would inflict "serious damage on the U.S. and its regional allies."

"If they [the US] want to damage our infrastructure, it goes without saying that the Islamic Republic will use all its power to easily destroy their capital and assets," Javani said.

"That includes internet cables, including seven major cables that run underwater through the Strait of Hormuz," he added.

Iran's Supreme National Security Council secretary, Maj. Gen. Mohsen Rezaei, met with Pakistan's army chief, Field Marshal Asim Munir, on Tuesday and said Tehran would not surrender any enriched uranium or negotiate with the U.S. until Washington rebuilt trust and met Iran's conditions.

“Not a single gram of enriched uranium will be removed from Iran,” Rezaei later said in a post on X.

“There will be no negotiations until the United States takes steps to build trust,” he added, saying the process must begin with the “full fulfillment of all Iran’s conditions.”

Fox News' Emma Bussey contributed to this report.