President Donald Trump on Thursday cryptically denied any intention of ordering American ground troops onto Iranian soil as the nearly three-week-old conflict continues to wreak havoc on the global economy with multiple attacks on oil and gas infrastructure from both sides.

The president was speaking during a question-and-answer session with reporters alongside Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi when he was asked if he intends to deploy more American forces — specifically ground troops — to the Middle East region.

He replied: “No, I’m not putting troops anywhere,” but then added: “If I were, I certainly wouldn’t tell you.”

He then repeated his assertion that he was not sending ground forces into Iran — despite reports the U.S. is weighing a deployment — and pledged to do “whatever is necessary” to keep oil and gas prices down in response to a second question on whether he intends to relax longstanding American sanctions against Iranian petroleum amid skyrocketing oil prices as a result of the war.

“I thought that it would go up more than it did, but we’re doing this excursion, and when it’s completed, we’re going to have a much safer world,” he said. Trump in the past week has taken to referring to his war in Iran as an “excursion” in a seeming bid to downplay it.

The president also admitted to having spoken with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu about an Israeli strike on Iranian gas infrastructure that has triggered retaliatory attacks on similar facilities across the Middle East.

“I told him ‘don’t do that,’ and he won’t do it,” Trump insisted, after a late-night Truth Social post in which he both foisted blame for the oil feed attack on Israel and warned of further devastation if Iran were to retaliate.

His comments about his conversation with Netanyahu came just hours after he accused Israel of having “violently lashed out” by attacking Iran’s South Pars natural gas field — the country’s largest such facility — and claimed the United States “knew nothing” while also denying Qatari involvement and foreknowledge of the strike “in no way, shape or form” after Tehran retaliated by attacking one of Qatar’s gas facilities.

Writing on Truth Social late Wednesday, he said there would be “NO MORE ATTACKS” on the Iranian facility so long as Tehran refrained from any further strikes on Qatari facilities in turn.

But in the same post he also threatened to have U.S. forces join Israel in a strike that would “massively blow up the entirety of the South Pars Gas Field at an amount of strength and power that Iran has never seen or witnessed before” if Iran did not heed his demand for no further attacks on LNG facilities.

“I do not want to authorize this level of violence and destruction because of the long term implications that it will have on the future of Iran, but if Qatar’s LNG is again attacked, I will not hesitate to do so,” he added.

Yet Trump’s denial of any American foreknowledge of the attack has been quickly called into question by Israeli officials, three of whom said the attack was in fact coordinated with the United States.

The three Israeli officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that Israel was not surprised by Trump’s comments.

They described the dynamic as similar to one that played out following Israel strikes on Iranian fuel depots in the early days of the war. After those attacks, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth distanced himself from the strikes by noting how in “that particular case those weren’t our strikes.”

Since Israel’s strike on South Pars, Iranian retaliation has caused significant damage to Qatar’s largest gas facility — the biggest in the world — while also striking a Saudi oil refinery and forcing the United Arab Emirates to shutter its own gas facilities.

The retaliatory strikes have caused Brent Crude Oil prices to spike by more than 13 percent in the week since the Israeli attack on South Pars.

Trump’s late night social media post caused oil prices to further rise to $114 per barrel on Thursday morning — the highest since June 2022 when oil prices peaked at $119 during the Ukraine war.

Iran has now issued calls for evacuations at Saudi Arabia’s Samref Refinery and Jubail Petrochemical Complex, the United Arab Emirates’ Al Hosn Gas Field, and Qatar’s Mesaieed Petrochemical Complex, Mesaieed Holding Company and the Ras Laffan Refinery.

The warning, issued on Iranian state media, declared: “These centres have become direct and legitimate targets and will be targeted in the coming hours. Therefore, all citizens, residents and employees are requested to immediately leave these areas and move to a safe distance without any delay.”