United States President Donald Trump said on Thursday that Iranian negotiators were “begging” for a deal with Washington. In a post on Truth Social, Trump described the Iranian side as “very different” and “strange”.
“They better get serious soon, before it is too late, because once that happens, there is NO TURNING BACK, and it won’t be pretty,” he added.
The remarks came as reports emerged that the United States was considering other military options, further pressuring the talks.
The United States Department of Defense is discussing new options for dealing the “final blow” to Iran, including deploying ground forces there and launching a high-pressure bombing campaign, Axios reported on Thursday. According to two US officials and two other sources familiar with the matter, such moves will become more likely if the latest effort to have Washington and Tehran negotiate fails. US President Donald Trump insisted that the talks are ongoing on the proposed 15-point plan for Iran’s nuclear status, while the other side dismissed such claims. Trump later said that the Iranian leadership is “afraid to say it because they figure they’ll be killed by their own people.” The outlet’s sources now said that potential options for intensifying pressure on Iran were discussed during a Zoom meeting. However, they pointed out that all the prospects are still “hypothetical” and that Trump has not decided on going for either of them yet.
The price of precious metals fell on Thursday as investors awaited clearer evidence of progress in efforts to ease tensions in the Middle East. Financial markets remained uneasy due to conflicting statements from the US and Iran over possible peace negotiations. Washington claimed Iran was desperate to reach an agreement, while ordering the deployment of thousands of troops to the Middle East, contradicting the Iranian foreign minister, who claimed his country had no intention of holding talks to end the conflict and instead set its own conditions, including sovereign control over the Strait of Hormuz.
Gold lost 2% at 7:15 am CET, going for $4,416.14 per ounce, while silver fell by 3.01% and went for $69.13 per ounce a minute later. Platinum dropped by 1.09% at 7:16 am CET to go for $1,918.74 per ounce, while palladium lost 0.76% to sell for $1,398.57 per ounce.
Crude oil prices rose on Thursday amid conflicting signals and fading hopes of de-escalation in the Middle East conflict, following Iran’s dismissal of US President Donald Trump’s claim that the sides were holding talks to end the conflict.
West Texas Intermediate (WTI) for settlements in May climbed by 2.21% to go for $92.27 per barrel at 2:28 am ET. Meanwhile, Brent for the same month’s deliveries advanced by 2.27% and went for $104.39 per barrel at 2:27 am ET.
The prices of oil futures sank by more than 3% on Wednesday after it was reported that the United States would soon propose a plan for a one-month ceasefire with Iran. Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump claimed that Iran had agreed not to work on a nuclear weapon. He also insisted on his country’s and Israel’s victory in the conflict in the Middle East. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) for deliveries in May decreased by 3.29% at 3:02 am ET to $89.3 per barrel. Meanwhile, Brent for the same month’s settlements declined by 3.72% to $100.6 per barrel, having slid by almost 4% moments earlier
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) declared on Wednesday that the United States is “negotiating with itself,” following US President Donald Trump’s previous remarks. “There will be no news of your investments in the region, nor will you see the previous prices of energy and oil, until you understand: stability in the region is guaranteed by the powerful hand of our armed forces. Stability through power,” a spokesperson for the IRGC’s Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters addressed Washington directly in a video message. Furthermore, the IRGC told the US not to call its “failure an agreement” and claimed that until its objectives are fulfilled, the current situation in the region will not return to “the previous order.”
In a statement posted on its website recently, QatarEnergy said it expects the damage to its Ras Laffan Industrial City caused by missile strikes to cost about $20 billion a year in lost revenue and to take up to five years to repair. The company – which highlighted that the strikes occurred on March 18 and March 19 – outlined that the damage will impact supply to markets in Europe and Asia. The attacks damaged two liquefied natural gas (LNG) producing trains – Trains 4 and 6 – totaling 12.8 million tons per annum (MTPA) of production, according to the statement, which pointed out that this represents approximately 17 percent of Qatar’s exports. QatarEnergy noted that Train 4 is a joint venture between QatarEnergy, which holds a 66 percent stake, and ExxonMobil, which holds a 34 percent interest, and that Train 6 is a joint venture between QatarEnergy, which holds a 70 percent stake, and ExxonMobil, which holds a 30 percent interest. The attacks also targeted the Pearl GTL (Gas-to-Liquids) facility, according to the statement, which stated that this is a production sharing agreement operated by Shell that converts natural gas into high-quality cleaner burning drop-in fuels and produces base oils used to make premium engine oils and lubricants, and paraffins and waxes. QatarEnergy outlined in its statement that there will be a loss of associated product production due to the outage as follows:
• Condensates: 18.6 million barrels, which the company said is around 24 percent of Qatar’s exports.
• LPG: 1.281 million tons, which QatarEnergy highlighted is around 13 percent of Qatar’s exports.
• Naphtha: 0.594 million tons, which is around six percent of Qatar’s exports, according to the company.
• Sulfur: 0.18 million tons, which is around six percent of Qatar’s exports, QatarEnergy pointed out.
• Helium: 309.54 MCFA, which the company said is around 14 percent of Qatar’s exports.
Saad Sherida Al-Kaabi – the Minister of State for Energy Affairs, and the President and CEO of QatarEnergy – revealed in the statement that no one was injured by the strikes, which he described as not “just an attack on the State of Qatar but attacks on global energy security and stability”. “This was an attack on all of us who stand for development and human progress that is sustained by a fair, reliable, and secure access to energy,” he added.“The damage sustained by the LNG facilities will take between three to five years to repair.
The United States is considering deploying the 82nd Airborne Division and elements of the division’s headquarters to support its campaign against Iran, The New York Times reported on Monday, citing people familiar with the matter. According to the report, the potential deployment is being treated as “prudent planning.” The forces could come from the Immediate Response Force, a unit of about 3,000 soldiers that can deploy anywhere in the world within 18 hours. One option under discussion is to use the force to seize Kharg Island. Another scenario under consideration would deploy about 2,500 troops from the 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit, which is now heading to the region, to take the island. No decision has been made, and the Pentagon has not issued any order, the report said.
A ceasefire between the United States, Israel, and Iran is believed to be out of reach for now, as Tehran does not appear to be “in any concession mode,” an Israeli official told CNN on Tuesday.
The same source suggested that the deal “does not appear to be tangible right now” and that the ongoing negotiations are a tactic to buy time to better prepare for further military strikes.
Meanwhile, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz today announced his country’s military “will continue striking Iran with full force.”
Stephen Nesbitt was on no one’s list of Wall Street heavyweights when he bumped into a thirty-something salesman pitching the next big thing for wealthy investors: private credit. Nesbitt — who, as it happened, had written a book on private debt — took the idea and ran with it. Within a few years, he and his son Blake transformed their modest consulting business, Cliffwater LLC, into an unlikely giant. Their strategy: rather than sweat the details of every direct loan themselves, they’d piggyback on the firms that did. They’d also invest in industry heavyweights, creating something akin to a fund-of-private-credit-funds. Now the father-and-son team, who rode private credit on the way up, risk falling hard on the way down. As investors in private credit funds rush for the exits, Cliffwater has become one of the biggest question marks in the $1.8 trillion industry. The worry isn’t so much that private loans will go bad all at once and crush the funds where Cliffwater has invested. It’s that antsy investors will keep asking for money back, prompting Cliffwater to dash for cash itself — instigating a vicious circle of redemptions and markdowns. Concerns center around the $33 billion Cliffwater Corporate Lending Fund, the largest of its kind in private credit. It’s what’s known as an interval fund, a type of closed-end vehicle that isn’t traded on an exchange but rather promises to buy back shares from investors at set intervals, usually quarterly, at net asset value. Cliffwater is legally obliged to buy back at least 5% every quarter if investors ask. That promise was a key selling point in good times. “Liquidity is the first-, second- and third-most important thing,” Blake Nesbitt emphasized at an industry roundtable this month. Trouble is, investors have been asking for a lot more back lately. In the first quarter, they demanded 14% from Cliffwater’s flagship fund. The firm capped redemptions at 7% or $2.3 billion — the first time that number had eclipsed inflows. The elder Nesbitt assured investors that the fund’s performance “remains strong,” but S&P Global Ratings lowered its outlook to negative, warning its rating could be at risk if the firm kept paying out more than 5%. Other vehicles from BlackRock Inc. and Morgan Stanley have limited redemptions at 5% in recent weeks, but, crucially, they maintain the right to further restrict withdrawals if the market gets ugly.
Investments in private-lending funds, Q4 2025 fair-value estimates
The chorus of doomsayers is growing louder. A viral report last month from David Rosen, founder of hedge fund Rubric Capital, called the firm “the canary in the coal mine” for a wider reckoning. Boaz Weinstein, the famous activist investor, said interval funds have overpromised “that you can get out, but it doesn’t work if there’s actually a fire.” “It all works great when no one wants their money back — but when you start to call those loans, we start to have a problem,” said Mark Malek, chief investment officer at Muriel Siebert & Co. A Cliffwater spokesperson said that despite recent pressure, the fund has enough liquidity to meet 5% redemptions for more than a year without selling a fund position or an asset. The Nesbitts, through the spokesperson, declined to comment for this story.Private C