The U.S. launched strikes on Iran Tuesday morning, hours after President Donald Trump said Washington is “reinstating” a blockade on Iran in the Strait of Hormuz. Trump separately suggested the United States will charge other ships for safe passage, upending hundreds of years of American policy supporting freedom of navigation across the globe.
Iran responded with attacks targeting Bahrain, Jordan and two tankers associated with the United Arab Emirates traveling through the strait, killing one mariner and wounding eight others. The Emirates threatened to retaliate against Iran, potentially drawing the nation that is home to Abu Dhabi and Dubai back into fighting with Tehran.
The attacks come as Iran and the U.S. vie for control of the strait through which a fifth of all traded crude oil and natural gas once passed in peacetime. The price of benchmark Brent crude oil rose to a one-month high of over $84 in trading early Tuesday, still well below the nearly $120 reached at the height of the war but threatening to make costs everywhere higher.
It also further shredded a ceasefire in place from an interim agreement between Iran and the U.S. to end the war. The accord is now almost halfway through the 60-day period in which they were supposed to negotiate a final accord, which also was supposed to address Iran’s disputed nuclear program and other issues.
