US-Iran Conflict Sends Gas Prices Soaring to Highest Level Since 2022

LOS ANGELES: At a gas station in Los Angeles, Ryder Thomas wore a grimace of barely suppressed anger as he filled his pickup truck, watching the cost tick up to $130 for a full tank -- $30 more than he was paying before the US and Israel attacked Iran. "I'm mad about the price, but I'm even madder about why it's so high," the 28-year-old told AFP. This week, pump prices in the United States climbed to their highest level since early 2022, when Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine triggered a global surge in the cost of oil. Hostilities in the Middle East, which began when Israel and the United States started bombing Iran on February 28, have crimped supply, sending the price of crude surging. The war launched by President Donald Trump is unpopular all over the United States, with polls showing a clear majority disapprove of a conflict whose aims they think are unclear. "There was absolutely no need for this war. It's just like when we invaded Iraq, there were no weapons of mass destruction," Thomas said. "Trump is an idiot, that's all it is." For weeks, the Republican billionaire has insisted that attacking Iran was necessary to prevent the country from acquiring nuclear weapons, and has repeatedly promised a short conflict. But despite the overwhelming might of the US military, the Islamic republic has blocked the Strait of Hormuz -- a global trade artery used to transport a fifth of the world's oil and gas.