WASHINGTON — The White House threatened further escalation of its military campaign against Iran, which later attacked a Kuwaiti oil tanker near Dubai, as the fifth week of war jolts global markets with little sign of relief.

President Donald Trump said in a social media post Monday that if Tehran didn’t reopen the Strait of Hormuz, “we will conclude our lovely ‘stay’ in Iran by blowing up and completely obliterating” electricity plants, oil facilities and “possibly” desalination infrastructure.

Trump has regularly vacillated between saying a deal with Iran is imminent and warning that he’s prepared to increase the military tempo. The threat to water facilities would constitute a war crime as defined by the Geneva Conventions.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said the United States is “conducting more intense, targeted strikes with devastating combat power with each passing day” and the American operations are proceeding “according to plan,” even as she echoed the president in saying talks are on track. The administration hasn’t identified which Iranian officials it’s dealing with, directly or indirectly.

Despite the mystery surrounding peace talks, Leavitt said the Iranians were “increasingly eager” to negotiate and agreed to “some of the points” that the U.S. put forward to end the conflict. Iran has consistently said peace talks aren’t progressing and has signaled it can carry on fighting for much longer.

“These folks are appearing more reasonable behind the scenes,” Leavitt added.

The back-and-forth on negotiations occurred as Israel and Iran exchanged missile strikes. The conflict is threatening to cause severe economic damage around the world, with the near-closing of the critical Hormuz waterway choking supplies of energy, fertilizer and other critical commodities. The United Arab Emirates issued multiple alerts overnight, and Saudi Arabia and Kuwait reported interceptions of drones and missiles.

The Kuwaiti crude carrier Al-Salmi was attacked by Iran in an anchorage area of a Dubai port, Kuwait Petroleum Corp. said in a statement. There were no injuries reported among the crew, KPC added, though the assault may have resulted in an “oil spill in the surrounding waters.”

Oil prices rose again on Monday with U.S. crude futures ending the session above $100 a barrel for the first time since 2022. The key psychological threshold was breached as the national average pump price for gasoline also nears $4 a gallon.

The most active Brent crude futures contract settled above $112 a barrel, and the international benchmark is on track for a record monthly percentage gain.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told Fox News the United States is “going to retake control” of Hormuz, ensuring safe navigation “through U.S. escorts or a multinational escort.” The U.S. announced such a plan in the early days of the war, though it hasn’t yet been executed.

Iran’s parliament approved legislation to impose fees in the strait, according to the semi-official Fars news agency.

Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah El-Sissi on Monday issued an appeal to Trump to end the conflict, saying only the U.S. president was capable of doing so. He warned of the dangers of rising energy prices on the economies of developing nations and political stability. Egypt is, along with Pakistan and Turkey, trying to mediate between Iran and the U.S.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in an interview with Newsmax that the Iran war was “definitely beyond the halfway point” in terms of missions, though possibly not in terms of time.

Netanyahu said the U.S. was leading in terms of any potential military solutions to open the Strait of Hormuz, though added that in the long term the solution to the strait may be to re-route oil flows via pipelines to the Red Sea, or even up to Israel for shipping straight from the Mediterranean.

The U.S. military said over the weekend that about 3,500 sailors and Marines have arrived in the Middle East on an amphibious assault ship. The Tripoli Amphibious Ready Group is also carrying fighter aircraft.

The Israel Defense Forces said it’s carrying out airstrikes on Iran a day after attacks resulted in power outages in Tehran and nearby areas. Iran said it’s striking Israel, which reported an attack on the Bazan oil refinery in Haifa, although not to production facilities.

Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One on Sunday that an agreement to end fighting could come soon, claiming that Iran agreed to “most of” the 15 demands the U.S. has issued, without offering specifics.

Iran suggested that isn’t the case, having publicly rejected the proposal last week.

“The demands conveyed to us have been excessive and illogical,” Foreign Ministry Spokesman Esmail Baghaei said in a news conference Monday, according to the semi-official Tasnim news agency.

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio declined to say who the U.S. is engaged with on the Iran side, telling ABC it would put them in danger as “there’s some fractures going on there internally.”

Iran has insisted on its own conditions to end hostilities, issuing a five-point plan that includes demands — such as the payment of war reparations — that Trump and Israel are unlikely to accept. Tehran also has called for an end to the war on all fronts, a likely reference to Israel’s parallel operation against Iran-allied Hezbollah in Lebanon.

Tehran-backed Houthi militants in Yemen entered the war over the weekend, launching missiles and drones at Israel.

More than 4,750 people have been killed so far, roughly three-quarters of them in Iran. More than 1,100 people have died in Lebanon, where more than a million people have been displaced. Dozens of people have been killed in Israel and Arab Gulf states.

Three United Nations peacekeeper troops have been killed in Lebanon over the past 24 hours.

Iran’s weekend strikes on Middle Eastern aluminum plants are threatening to send a fragile market into crisis, raising the prospect of record prices for the metal.

In an interview with the Financial Times, Trump said he wants to “take the oil in Iran,” which would involve occupying the country’s main export hub of Kharg Island — also the location of an Iranian naval base.

“Our men are waiting for American soldiers to enter on the ground,” Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf said, according to Tasnim.

Trump is also considering a military operation to seize Iran’s near-bomb-grade uranium, three diplomatic officials briefed on the matter told Bloomberg News earlier this month.

Pakistan said it was ready to facilitate peace talks between the U.S. and Iran in the coming days after hosting a meeting of foreign ministers from Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Egypt. Pakistani Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar, who didn’t elaborate on the timeline or the likelihood of such talks taking place, called for creating the right conditions for structured discussions between the parties.

_____

(With assistance from John Bowker, Jordan Fabian, Devika Krishna Kumar, Magdalena Del Valle, Derek Wallbank, Romy Varghese and John Harney.)

©2026 Bloomberg L.P. Visit bloomberg.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.