Trump suggests US could keep Iranian oil as regional conflicts push crude past $107

US president Donald Trump has suggested his forces could stay in Iran and "keep the oil", drawing a parallel with a US push to take control of a fifth of Venezuela's vast oil reserves.

Trump reiterated that he still expected the Iran war to end this year even as the gridlock over talks on the Strait of Hormuz continue. Trump added that the price of gasoline would "drop like a rock" once the Iran war ended.

On Monday crude oil spiked to $107 a barrel, one of the highest since the US and Israel launched its war on Iran. Trump said that he would only make the "right deal", before drawing a parallel with the US deal in Venezuela, announced in August.

"We'll ultimately get out (of Iran), unless we decide to stay and keep the oil like Venezuela," Trump said, adding that the US revenue from Venezuela has "paid for the war many times".

Meanwhile, Oman said it had to postpone a meeting scheduled for Monday in Muscat with Iran and other regional countries to discuss the Strait of Hormuz “in the interest of consensus”.

The head of Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization is not expected to attend the annual gathering of the UN nuclear watchdog’s member nations in Vienna for the first time in years because he is banned from international travel, an official briefed on the matter said.

Mohammad Eslami’s exclusion from the IAEA conference is another sign of rapidly deteriorating relations between Iran and the West. Austria sought a waiver of the travel ban on Eslami with the UN sanctions committee but it was not granted, the official said.

As host of the United Nations in Vienna, Austria can request exemptions from travel bans to enable sanctioned officials to attend international conferences at the UN.

Syrian government plans to turn a former military airport in Damascus into a hub for private jets are raising alarm among rights groups and residents who say redevelopment could disturb suspected mass graves and override private land claims.

Syria’s civil aviation authority said last week it was preparing to reclassify Mezzeh military airport for limited civilian use, focused on private and executive aviation, to complement Damascus International Airport, according to a report on Syria's state news agency, SANA. Rubble removal and infrastructure upgrades had already begun, the report said.

The project is emerging as a test of how Syria’s new authorities balance a drive to attract investment and redevelop state assets with two unresolved legacies of Assad’s family rule: the fate of tens of thousands of missing Syrians and property rights clouded by decades of expropriation.

An Iranian American jeweler from New York has been released from prison in Iran, but he is prohibited from leaving the country, according to his family and federal officials.

Kamran Hekmati was let out of Tehran’s notorious Evin prison on Sept. 5 after completing about half of a two-year sentence, his family recently wrote on a website advocating for his release.

The family said they are also “desperately afraid for his health and well-being” as he requires regular medical checkups to ensure his bladder cancer doesn’t relapse.

President Donald Trump suggested that US could stay in Iran and "keep the oil", drawing a parallel with a US push to take control of a fifth of Venezuela's vast oil reserves.

On a trip to Ireland for meetings and to watch golf, he reiterated that he still expected the Iran war to end this year, possibly just after midterm elections due in the US in November.

Speaking at the Irish Open golf championship, Trump added that the price of gasoline would "drop like a rock" once the Iran war ended.

Trump said that he would only make the "right deal" and wouldn't do one that was "no good", adding that Iran was "calling constantly" for peace talks — an assertion that Tehran has dismissed in the past.

But the president also introduced another option: stay engaged with Iran. He drew a parallel with the US deal in Venezuela, announced in August.

"We'll ultimately get out (of Iran), unless we decide to stay and keep the oil like Venezuela," Trump said, adding that the US revenue from Venezuela has "paid for the war many times".

US president Donald Trump brushed aside a report that Iran acquired satellite images of a base in Jordan from Chinese entities before an attack that killed three US troops.

The Wall Street Journal cited unnamed US officials about the attack in Jordan.

Asked whether he would mention the issue at an upcoming meeting with Chinese president Xi Jinping, Trump did not directly answer, and instead equated the surveillance activities of China and the United States.

"They basically do what we do," he told reporters aboard Air Force One.

"When they say China spies on us, I say you're right and we spy on them too."

Trump on Sunday reiterated his view that he has a good relationship with Xi. "I think he's behaved reasonably well, and we behave reasonably well," Trump said as he flew back to the US after a weekend trip to Ireland.

One person was killed and three injured after an Iranian commercial vessel was struck off Qeshm Island, the largest island in the Persian Gulf that sits on the Strait of Hormuz, state media reported.

Separately, the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations monitor reported a vessel was hit by a projectile while transiting the strait, with no details. It was not immediately clear if it was the same strike.

There was no immediate statement by the US military, which has previously struck Iranian-flagged vessels as it keeps up a blockade of Iranian ports. On Saturday, the military said its forces had redirected 100 commercial vessels over the past 60 days.

The Saudi Civil Defence sent an all-clear this morning after issuing alerts for potential danger in four southern cities amid an uptick in attacks by Yemen's Iran-aligned Houthis.

Saudi Civil Defence had issued the alerts for the cities of Najran, Khamis Mushait, Jazan and Abha. It also later issued warnings for Khamis Mushait and Abha a second time before lifting them again.

The Houthis, who control the most populous parts of Yemen and much of the north, have been launching attacks towards Saudi Arabia since declaring a naval blockade against Riyadh in July, with strikes targeting Saudi vessels in the Red Sea.

Oil prices jumped more than 2 per cent this morning after new Houthi strikes on Saudi Arabia and Iranian attacks on ships in the Gulf compounded supply concerns following the closure of a key Saudi oil pipeline.

Brent crude futures rose $2.90, or 2.77 per cent, to $107.51 per barrel. WTI futures rose $2.27, or 2.27 per cent, to $102.32 per barrel. Prices had initially risen more than 3 per cent at market open.

Oman said it had to postpone a meeting scheduled for today in Muscat with Iran and other regional countries to discuss the Strait of Hormuz.

Iran and Oman are located on either side of the strait, and Tehran had said foreign ministers from various regional countries would meet in Oman to discuss its management.

But the foreign minister of Oman, Badr Albusaidi, said on X yesterday that the meeting had been postponed “in the interests of consensus”.

Iran and Oman agreed to postpone the talks “at the request of some regional countries,” said Mohammad Ali Bak, an official in Iran’s foreign ministry who was quoted by IRNA on X.