Crude prices dipped after Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Iran was being “decimated” and that the war would end earlier than many feared.
Traders also welcomed U.S. president Donald Trump’s remarks that Israeli forces would not target any more of Tehran’s energy infrastructure, after strikes on a key gas field sparked warnings of retaliation against installations across the Gulf.
Netanyahu told a news conference that Israel and the United States were “winning and Iran is being decimated,” adding that the Islamic Republic no longer had the capacity to enrich uranium or manufacture ballistic missiles.
Netanyahu also said he would help the United States try to secure Hormuz, through which a fifth of global oil and gas flows.
Asked whether he had talked to the prime minister about attacking Iranian gas fields, Trump replied: “I did. I told him, don’t do that, and he won’t do that.”
