A war of nerves and missiles played out over the weekend as Iran and Israel both refused to stop striking each other’s energy infrastructure, sending global oil prices above $100 per barrel in a standoff with no clear winner and potentially enormous costs for the global economy.
Israeli forces struck at least five oil and fuel facilities in and around Tehran, killing four workers and dragging the capital into a day of black smoke and burning oil. Iran’s Revolutionary Guards responded by threatening $200 crude and launching simultaneous strikes against five Gulf nations, damaging desalination infrastructure in Bahrain and killing two Saudi civilians.
Saudi Arabia intercepted 15 drones, a US service member died from wounds sustained in an Iranian attack in the kingdom, and reports of Russian intelligence assistance to Iran for targeting US military assets added alarming geopolitical dimensions to the crisis. The death toll among American forces reached seven.
Iran’s clerical body appointed Mojtaba Khamenei as the country’s new supreme leader in a historic first. His selection was seen as consolidating hardline power at a moment when neither side showed any willingness to blink — a dynamic that analysts warned could sustain elevated oil prices for months rather than weeks.
Washington pledged not to target Iranian oil infrastructure and predicted short-term disruptions. But with both sides escalating simultaneously, oil above $100, and a new hardline Iranian leader freshly installed, the standoff showed every sign of continuing well into the foreseeable future.