Global oil prices end near an 8-week low as Trump backs away from his threat of strikes on Iran

By Myra P. Saefong and Victor Reklaitis

The president had threatened strikes on Iran Thursday night and said the U.S. would take Kharg Island, the Mideast country's oil-export hub

President Donald Trump had threatened in a social-media post on Thursday that the U.S. would take Iran's Kharg Island and other oil-infrastructure points and assume control of Iran's oil and gas markets, but then he wrote a conciliatory post.

Global oil prices settled Thursday at their lowest in almost eight weeks after President Donald Trump said he was canceling planned fresh strikes on Iran, pulling back from his threat earlier in the day.

"Based on the fact that discussions with the Islamic Republic of Iran have been brought to the highest level of Iranian leadership and approved, I have, as President of the United States of America, cancelled the scheduled strikes and bombings against Iran this evening," Trump said in a social-media post.