Trump threatens to “obliterate” Iran’s power supplies as fuel prices soar

[0:00] The price of diesel in the UK has reached its most expensive level since the end of 2022 as the Iran oil crisis escalates. [0:09] The ROC said the average price of a litre of the fuel at UK forecourts today was more than £1.80. [0:15] Business leaders from the worlds of energy, shipping and banking met the Prime Minister in Downing Street this afternoon [0:20] to discuss the impact of the Iran war on the UK. [0:24] Our business editor Simon Jack reports. [0:26] This Israeli refinery is the latest target of tit-for-tat missile strikes damaging Middle East energy infrastructure [0:34] with US threats to seize Iran's giant Haga Island oil depot, another possible escalation [0:41] in a conflict whose economic impact is being felt around the world. [0:48] Asia, with its high dependence on Gulf oil deliveries, is hardest hit. [0:52] Shortages in India, rationing in Sri Lanka and protests in the Philippines. [0:57] Here in the UK, very little of our physical... [1:02] Physical oil supply comes from the Gulf, but markets are global and shortages anywhere mean price rises everywhere. [1:09] And this coach firm has seen its diesel bill rise by £9,000 a week. [1:14] It is traumatic, really, because you can't double the price within six weeks. [1:20] As you know, everybody is suffering with it and we are the main thing in this business is diesel and, of course, fuel. [1:31] Now, both petrol and diesel... [1:32] Both petrol and diesel prices have risen sharply since the conflict began. [1:36] But, as you can see, diesel has risen twice as fast and is considered more vulnerable to tightening supplies. [1:44] Now, that is partly because the UK imports most of its diesel from abroad. [1:49] Just 40% of it is refined here. [1:51] 22% comes from the Netherlands and Belgium. [1:54] You get an extra 21% coming across the Atlantic from the US [1:58] and just 5% coming directly from the Gulf. [2:02] But these refineries here in Belgium and the Netherlands do get crude from the Gulf [2:07] and the tankers delivering there now set sail from the Gulf a month ago before the conflict started. [2:13] So, gaps will start showing up from now, increasing the price pressures. [2:18] Fuel retailers are urging the government to ditch plans to raise fuel duty in September [2:24] and follow other countries' lead and cut taxes on fuel now. [2:28] We've now seen a couple of countries, notably ERA and Australia, [2:32] actually cut taxes. [2:33] They cut fuel duty. [2:34] So, that's something I'll be requesting of the Chancellor. [2:36] This afternoon, the Prime Minister brought business leaders and military advisers together [2:42] to discuss the conflict and how best to help households and the economy. [2:45] It's not our war, but it is our duty to protect British citizens. [2:49] Particularly, their concern will be not just the escalation of the war, [2:52] but this sense that it's going to hit them and their families and their households. [2:58] Oil prices are very pervasive. [3:02] They get into farmers' fuel, feed, fertilizer costs, [3:05] pushing up food prices. [3:07] Very little escapes the repercussion of a Middle East energy crisis. [3:11] Simon Jack, BBC News. [3:12] President Trump says that the US is in serious discussions [3:17] with what he calls a new, more reasonable regime in Iran. [3:21] But he's also threatened Iran that unless the Strait of Hormuz is opened, [3:26] the US would obliterate their electric plants, oil wells and Haag Island. [3:31] The latter is the critical oil facility off Iran's coast [3:35] and US officials claim troops are preparing for possible ground operations. [3:39] Thousands of US Marines are now in the region, [3:42] with special forces and paratroopers on the way. [3:45] Our security correspondent Frank Gardner looks at what options are available to America. [3:50] Paratroopers from the 82nd Airborne, US Marines offshore, [3:55] plans afoot for boots on the ground. [3:57] US forces are gathering near the Gulf as President Trump attempts to pressure Iran into a deal. [4:03] Great progress, he said, has been made, [4:06] but if a deal is not shortly reached and if the Hormuz Strait is not open for business immediately, [4:12] we will conclude our lovely stay in Iran, he says, [4:15] by blowing up and obliterating all of their electric plants, oil wells and Haag Island. [4:21] Iran currently controls the vital Strait of Hormuz, [4:25] but its island of Haag could be in America's sights for an invasion. [4:29] It lies nearly 20 miles offshore. [4:33] It measures just eight square miles with 20,000 inhabitants. [4:37] It's through Haag that 90% of Iran's oil is exported. [4:42] But Iran has other Gulf islands that could also be targets for US landings, [4:47] like Larak or Qeshm, Abu Musa and the greater and lesser Tums. [4:55] Iran has promised to meet any invasion with raining fire down on US troops. [5:00] One month into this war, it still retains enough drones and missiles like these to mean it. [5:06] When you start sending ground forces closer to the Iranian coast, [5:10] to Iranian territory, the risk of casualties increases, the danger increases. [5:15] We're at a stage in the war where the US has to be more prepared [5:18] to accept at least some casualties to try and force a conclusion to the conflict. [5:22] Of course, the nightmare scenario for the US is a difficult fight, [5:26] a battle that they probably win, but ultimately it has no strategic gain. [5:30] And then people would really start to question, what was this all for? [5:35] The 82nd Airborne Division is a formidable force known as the tip of the spear. [5:41] If they were in Iran, they could possibly be dropped at night. [5:44] But waiting for them on the ground would be anti-personnel mines and possibly swarms of drones. [5:51] Meanwhile, Iran is hurting badly, not just the government or the Revolutionary Guards, [5:56] but ordinary residents. [5:58] These clips from inside Iran, given to our colleagues at BBC Persian, [6:02] show the frustration with both sides. [6:05] Neither America or the government is backing down. [6:09] Nor do these people have anything to lose. [6:12] It doesn't matter to them at all. [6:14] My sister said today, enough is enough, for God's sake. [6:18] Declare a ceasefire. [6:21] People don't say anymore that they wish the government would go away. [6:25] They say they just want it all to end, just end it. [6:29] Little sign of that today, though. [6:31] This was an unexploded Iranian ballistic missile that landed in southern Israel. [6:37] This war has already wreaked so much damage in this region. [6:41] And yet, it could still escalate further. [6:44] Frank Gardner, BBC News. [6:47] Meanwhile, the Ministry of Defence says RAF regiment gunners operating in a high-threat area [6:52] have successfully downed multiple Iranian drones overnight. [6:56] In Lebanon, the Israeli military said it was targeting Hezbollah's infrastructure [7:00] in Beirut's southern suburbs. [7:02] Iran has continued to fire missiles and drones at targets in the Gulf states. [7:07] Kuwait says a strike on a power station and water desalination plant killed an Indian worker. [7:13] Turkey's defence ministry has announced that a ballistic missile fired from Iran [7:18] was intercepted by NATO forces deployed in the eastern Mediterranean. [7:23] Well, our chief North America correspondent, Gary O'Donoghue, is in Washington for us now. [7:27] And we're well into the fifth week of this war. [7:29] How clear are we about President Trump's strategy for it? [7:36] Well, we're still seeing this twin-track strategy, [7:39] a strategy of piling on the pressure, continuing the attacks, [7:43] making new and fresh threats to hit. [7:45] Threats to hit infrastructure, desalinisation plants, [7:49] potentially to invade parts of Iranian territory on the one hand, [7:54] but also sort of torquing up the nature of the negotiations, [7:58] saying they're achieving things when really there's no evidence at the moment [8:02] that they're anywhere near anything approaching direct discussions. [8:06] And, of course, at that sort of same time, pressure is increasing on the president. [8:10] He has been pulled in different directions. [8:12] The defence secretary, very hawkish, Pete Higgins, [8:15] and Vice President J.D. Vance now at the centre of these negotiations [8:19] with much more, much more reservation about this whole thing. [8:24] I think what we're going to have to wait to see [8:26] with this new self-imposed deadline of next Monday [8:30] that the administration has put on itself [8:33] is that the hope for some kind of conflict resolution [8:37] is if we get to the point where President Trump really needs an off-ramp [8:41] for domestic, international reasons, [8:45] besides it doesn't want to take any more punishment. [8:48] That could be the moment where a confluence of interests between the two [8:53] means they really do want to come together and make a deal.