US reimposes its blockade on Iran after Tehran’s attacks on ships in the Strait of Hormuz

DUBAI: The US military early Wednesday reinstated a blockade on Iranian ports in response to Tehran's assaults on vessels navigating the Strait of Hormuz, triggering fresh strikes on nations hosting American forces as a temporary ceasefire agreement continued to unravel.

The Strait of Hormuz is a critical chokepoint for global energy supplies, and conflicts there have historically escalated into broader regional instability.

Retaliatory strikes across the Middle East by Iran, alongside the two countries' struggle for control of the waterway that carries one-fifth of the world's oil and gas during peacetime, threaten to push the region back into full-scale war.

The US first imposed the blockade in mid-April and then lifted it in mid-June, a day after signing the interim deal that set a 60-day period for negotiations over issues like Iran’s nuclear program, but talks have stalled as fighting over the strait has intensified.

When US President Donald Trump announced the blockade's return Monday, he also said he would impose a 20 percent fee on ships transiting the strait. But he dropped that plan hours before resuming the blockade, citing requests from allies in the Arabian Gulf.

Both US and Iran launched attacks as blockade reimposed

The US carried out another wave of strikes as it reimposed the blockade, striking dozens of targets over seven hours, the US military’s Central Command said Wednesday.

Missile alert warnings went out in Bahrain and Kuwait early Wednesday morning as they faced incoming Iranian fire, something that’s been a daily occurrence, further straining a ceasefire in the war.

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said they struck facilities used by the US Fifth Fleet in Bahrain, state television reported Wednesday, after US strikes on Iranian territory.

“The NSI Management Center, Command and Control Center, Major Military Parts and Equipment Warehouses, and Fuel Storage Facilities of the US Fifth Fleet in Bahrain Were Crushed,” the Guards said in a statement carried by state television IRIB.

US Navy Adm. Brad Cooper, who leads Central Command, said in a statement that Iran had launched dozens of missiles and drones at neighboring Gulf Arab countries.

“US forces are holding Iran accountable for unwarranted aggression that continues to endanger innocent lives,” Cooper said.

There are at least 19 US warships in the Arabian Sea, including two aircraft carriers and an amphibious assault ship with more than 1,000 Marines aboard. Central Command also said in a social media post that there are “hundreds of military aircraft operating across the Middle East.”

When the US and Israel launched the war on Iran on Feb. 28, Tehran effectively shut the passage by attacking and threatening ships. That sent the price of oil, fertilizer and other goods soaring.

Iran has more recently attacked ships moving through the strait on a route near Oman overseen by the US military that is outside Tehran’s control, setting off the recent violence. The US has threatened to reopen the strait by force — but experts say that would require a much bigger armada if not tens of thousands of ground troops.

Iran’s ambassador to the United Nations, Amir Saeid Iravani, criticized America’s ongoing attacks targeting his country.

“The US is the aggressor, not the victim,” he wrote to the world body’s leader, according to the state-run IRNA news agency.

At least seven personnel ​were killed in US strikes on an Iranian military base in Bampur overnight, ‌Iran’s army ‌said ​on ‌Wednesday, ⁠according ​to the semi-official ⁠Tasnim news agency.

The army said the strikes were ⁠intended to cause ‌maximum casualties, ‌with ​13 ‌missiles hitting ‌a guesthouse, guard posts and accommodation facilities at the ‌base near the southeastern city of ⁠Iranshahr.

It ⁠added that a number of personnel were also wounded and promised a “decisive response” to the attack. 

Trump says he’s replacing the fees with Gulf investments

Trump said Tuesday that he was called by the region’s “kings and emirs,” who suggested an alternate arrangement to charging ships fees to pass through the strait like the president proposed a day earlier.

“They said we’d love to do it a different way. We’d love to invest in the United States with billions and billions of dollars,” Trump told reporters Tuesday in the Oval Office.

Trump said he preferred that arrangement to charging tolls “because I don’t think anybody should be able to charge a fee for the strait.”

It was unclear if the investment deals would be new commitments relative to what Trump announced after a visit last year to the Middle East.

Trump’s plan to charge fees would have been a change to longstanding American policy and a departure from US promises that the strait would remain open to all without tolls.

Trump told Fox News Channel on Tuesday night that more US strikes against Iran were coming over the next two days and that bridges and power plants could be targets by next week unless negotiations resume. Already, the US has struck at least one bridge.

“You better make a deal, or you’re not going to have anything left,” Trump warned.

Strikes and counterstrikes resume across the Mideast

Jordan’s army said Wednesday it had shot down three missiles from Iran, as Tehran pressed attacks on US allies in response to American strikes.

“Air defense systems intercepted and shot down three ballistic missiles at dawn on Wednesday after they entered Jordanian airspace from Iranian territory,” the army said in a statement, adding that there were no casualties or material damage.

US Central Command said it struck several areas in Iran earlier Tuesday; Tehran acknowledged the strikes but provided no overall casualty or damage assessments.

Hours after the US said it ended its strikes, the Iranian city of Bushehr on the Arabian Gulf was hit in at least four locations, the IRNA news agency reported. Explosions in the southwestern city of Ahvaz and the southern port city of Bandar Abbas also were reported by Iranian state media Tuesday night.

The attacks again raised the possibility that Gulf Arab states were retaliating against Iran without discussing it in public.

Kuwait separately said an Iranian attack wounded four members of its navy Tuesday and set a building on fire.

The interim peace deal is in peril

Under the interim deal, Iran agreed that passage through the strait would remain free of charge for 60 days — but the agreement left open what would happen after. Iran asserts it has the right to manage traffic and potentially charge fees. The US has disputed that.

The price for a barrel of Brent crude oil, the international standard, briefly topped $87 early Tuesday, still well below the nearly $120 reached at the height of the war. The price dipped to $78 in the aftermath of Trump’s announcement that he had changed course.

Regional mediators meanwhile are still trying to get the United States and Iran back to the negotiating table, according to two regional officials.

The officials, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss the delicate diplomatic process, said Pakistan-led mediation was working around the clock to reactivate the ceasefire.

– with AFP

Both the US and Iran have launched attacks since the blockade was reimposed, further straining a fragile ceasefire in the region. The intensifying military exchanges risk derailing any diplomatic efforts to resolve the broader conflict. The situation remains highly volatile, with potential repercussions for global energy markets and regional security.