Tehran threatens to halt all Mideast energy exports after US reimposes blockade on Iran
The United States early Wednesday reimposed a naval blockade on Iran and intensified its air campaign, striking an Iranian army barracks and killing at least seven soldiers while wounding more than 260 people across the country, Iranian officials said.
Days of retaliatory attacks between Iran and the United States, coupled with both countries' efforts to assert control over the Strait of Hormuz, threaten to push the Middle East back towards all-out war.
More than 30 people have been killed in recent days, Iranian government spokesperson Fatemeh Mohajerani said, without providing further details. Seven of the fatalities were reported in the strike on the military barracks in Iran's south-eastern Sistan and Baluchestan province.
The United States first imposed the blockade in mid-April before lifting it in mid-June, a day after signing an interim agreement that established a 60-day period for negotiations on issues including Iran's nuclear programme. Those talks have since stalled as fighting around the Strait of Hormuz — through which about one-fifth of the world's oil and natural gas trade passes during peacetime — has intensified.
Iran's paramilitary Revolutionary Guard threatened on Wednesday to halt all energy exports from the Middle East in response to the renewed blockade.
"The export of oil and gas from the region will be either for everyone or for no one," it said.
When US President Donald Trump announced the return of the blockade on Monday, he also said he would impose a 20% fee on ships transiting the Strait of Hormuz. However, he abandoned the proposal just hours before reimposing the blockade, saying Gulf allies had urged him instead to pursue investment deals.
Both sides launch fresh attacks
The US military carried out another wave of strikes as it reinstated the blockade, hitting dozens of targets over seven hours, US Central Command said on Wednesday.
Hossein Kermanpour, a spokesperson for Iran's Health Ministry, said more than 260 people had been wounded in Wednesday's attacks, though he did not specify how many had been killed. The casualty figure represents the highest number of injuries reported in any recent round of fighting between Iran and the United States.
One of the strikes targeted the headquarters of Iran's 388th Mechanised Infantry Brigade in Bampour, Sistan and Baluchestan province, Iranian state television reported. At least 13 missiles hit the base, killing both conscripts and career soldiers while injuring several others.
The army vowed what state television described as "a decisive response to this aggressive action by the American enemy".
The 388th Brigade operates battle tanks and armoured vehicles.
Missile alerts sounded early Wednesday in Bahrain and Kuwait as they faced incoming Iranian missiles, becoming an almost daily occurrence and further undermining hopes of maintaining the fragile ceasefire. Jordan also said it intercepted three Iranian missiles. Iran claimed responsibility for attacks on all three countries.
US Navy Admiral Brad Cooper, commander of Central Command, said Iran had launched dozens of missiles and drones at neighbouring Gulf states.
"US forces are holding Iran accountable for unwarranted aggression that continues to endanger innocent lives," Cooper said.
Strait remains flashpoint
When the United States and Israel launched military operations against Iran on 28 February, Tehran effectively shut down the Strait of Hormuz by attacking and threatening commercial shipping. The disruption sent global prices for oil, fertiliser and other commodities sharply higher.
More recently, Iran has attacked vessels using a shipping lane near Oman that is protected by the US military and lies outside Tehran's direct control, fuelling the latest escalation.
Washington has threatened to reopen the waterway by force, although analysts say doing so would require a far larger naval deployment, if not tens of thousands of ground troops.
Iran's ambassador to the United Nations, Amir Saeid Iravani, accused Washington of being the aggressor.
"The US is the aggressor, not the victim," he wrote to the UN chief, according to the state-run IRNA news agency.
Trump favours investment over tolls
Speaking to reporters in the Oval Office on Tuesday, Trump said leaders from Gulf countries had called him after he proposed charging ships to pass through the Strait of Hormuz.
"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 said.
He added that he preferred investment agreements to charging tolls "because I don't think anybody should be able to charge a fee for the strait".
It remains unclear whether those investments would represent new commitments beyond those announced following Trump's visit to the Middle East last year.
Trump's proposed tolls would have marked a significant shift in longstanding US policy, under which Washington has maintained that the strait should remain open to international shipping without transit fees.
In an interview with Fox News on Tuesday night, Trump warned that further US strikes would follow over the next two days and suggested bridges and power plants could become targets next week unless negotiations resumed. American forces have already struck at least one bridge.
"You better make a deal, or you're not going to have anything left," Trump warned.
Interim deal under pressure
Under the interim agreement, Iran accepted that passage through the Strait of Hormuz would remain free of charge for 60 days, but the deal did not address what would happen afterwards. Tehran maintains it has the right to regulate traffic and potentially impose transit fees, a position rejected by Washington.
Brent crude, the international oil benchmark, briefly climbed above $87 a barrel early Tuesday, remaining below the nearly $120 reached during the height of the conflict. Prices later fell to $78 after Trump abandoned the toll proposal before rebounding to around $85 on Wednesday following the renewed violence.
Regional mediators continue efforts to bring the United States and Iran back to the negotiating table as concerns grow that the conflict could spiral into a broader regional war.