State Department tells Americans worldwide to 'exercise increased caution'

The U.S. State Department has green lit and fast-tracked more than $16 billion dollars’ worth of arms sales to the UAE, Jordan and Kuwait, according to the government.

The UAE has been cleared to purchase 10 Site- Low, Slow, Small Unmanned Aircraft Integrated Defeat Systems, which are used to detect, track and neutralize hostile drones; long-range discrimination radar integrated with Terminal High Altitude Area Defense for missile defense; F-16 munitions and upgrades; and 400 Advanced Medium-Range Air-to-Air Missiles. The estimated cost for these sales is just under $8.5 billion, according to the department.

Kuwait is seeking to buy Lower Tier Air and Missile Defense Sensor Radars for an estimated cost of $8 billion, while Jordan is looking to make a smaller purchase of aircraft and munitions support and related equipment for an estimated cost of $70.5 million, according to the department.

All sales are being fast-tracked due to an emergency declaration made by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, waiving congressional review requirements, according to the department.

The UAE is a designated “major defense partner” of the U.S., and at the beginning of this year, it was the 11th largest U.S. defense customer by value. Kuwait, a major non-NATO ally, has also purchased numerous large arms packages from the U.S. in recent years, according to the department.

Qatar's Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Sheikh Mohammed Bin Abdulrahman Al Thani called for an immediate end to the war during a press conference with Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan.

"Everyone knows who benefits from this war and from dragging the region into this conflict. Unfortunately, what is happening now is in service of these agendas," he said.

Qatar reserves the "right to respond to this attack through all available legal means and for these attacks there will be a cost according to international law," he said.

Qatar ordered Iranian embassy officials to leave the country on Wednesday over the repeated targeting of its territory after Iran struck the world's largest liquified natural gas terminal in Qatar.

In the latest effort to ease spiking oil prices, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said that the U.S. might lift sanctions on Iranian oil that's already out at sea.

"In the coming days, we may unsanction the Iranian oil that's on the water. It's about 140 million barrels," Bessent said in an interview Thursday on Fox Business.

This would be a major reversal in U.S. policy, which has sanctioned Iranian oil for decades. And, in the middle of the war, it would mean Iran stands to make more money by selling its oil to the highest bidder.

Analysts say Iran has actually increased its own volume of oil exports since the start of the war, because Iranian tankers have been able to pass through the Strait of Hormuz.

Bessent said the Iranian oil would have been going to China. He suggested the sanctions waiver would reduce oil prices because it could go elsewhere and add more global supply to the market. ABC News has asked the Treasury Department for more clarity on how exactly that would work.

"In essence, we will be using the Iranian barrels against the Iranians to keep the price down for the next 10 or or 14 days as we continue this campaign. So we have, we have lots of levers. We've got plenty more that we can do," Bessent added.

-ABC News' Elizabeth Schulze and Michelle Stoddart

A U.S. F-35 fighter jet had to make an emergency landing in the Middle East just before midnight on Wednesday while flying a combat mission over Iran, according to Capt. Tim Hawkins, a Centcom spokesperson.

The aircraft landed safely at a U.S. base in the region and the pilot is in stable condition. It’s unclear if the stealth fighter was hit by Iranian fire.

This was first reported by CNN.

-ABC News' Steven Beynon