Donald Trump has said Washington will not strike Iran ahead of the US midterm elections, as the Islamic republic steps up attacks on commercial ships trying to transit the Strait of Hormuz.
Trump’s war on Iran is deeply unpopular with the US electorate, having created a global energy crisis and triggered an inflation shock that is hitting American voters’ ability to afford everyday products and services.
Tied to the president’s policies, Republicans are fighting to keep control of Congress, which increasingly appears to be slipping from their grasp.
“We will not be attacking Iran at any time prior to the Midterm Elections to be held in the United States on November 3rd,” Trump wrote in a social media post on Thursday, adding that Washington and Tehran were “having productive discussions”.
Oil prices had surged to their highest level this month on Thursday after tankers were hit by missiles in the Gulf and off the coast of Oman late on Wednesday, alongside signs that a revival of shipping through the vital waterway was tapering off.
Brent trimmed its gain following Trump’s post and settled 4.1 per cent higher at $104.28 a barrel.
Earlier in the conflict, the US had retaliated against Iranian attacks on tankers trying to get oil out of the Gulf.
At the end of August, the US military struck two Iranian rocket launchers on an island in the strait, saying it had targeted Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps forces preparing to launch rockets with sea mines into the waterway.
The last publicly acknowledged strikes by the US military on Iranian targets were a month ago, when it claimed to have destroyed five of the regime’s crude oil tankers in retaliation for the IRGC attacking a US Navy warship.
Trump had previously said that he could resume attacks on Iran after the crucial November 3 vote.
The White House had asked US Central Command, which oversees American military operations in the Middle East, to draw up possible strike options to carry out before the midterms, the Atlantic magazine reported on Wednesday.
But Trump’s post on Thursday was a tacit acknowledgment that further strikes against Iran could undermine Republican candidates on the campaign trail less than a month before the midterms.
Polls show that voters’ anger over the high cost of fuel due to the president’s war could cost his party at the ballot box.
Democrats are confident that they can take control of the US House of Representatives and are increasingly optimistic that it is possible for them to win the Senate as well.
Even Senate seats in reliably Republican states are increasingly in play, with Texas, Alaska, Ohio, Iowa and Kansas now either virtual ties or leaning towards the Democrats, according to the non-partisan Cook Political Report.