{"id":550593,"date":"2026-07-15T07:57:11","date_gmt":"2026-07-15T07:57:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/550593\/"},"modified":"2026-07-15T07:57:11","modified_gmt":"2026-07-15T07:57:11","slug":"tehran-threatens-to-block-more-vital-seaways-as-trump-orders-renewed-iran-blockade-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/550593\/","title":{"rendered":"Tehran threatens to block more vital seaways as Trump orders renewed Iran blockade \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tehran has threatened to close \u201call other export corridors that benefit the US<\/a> and its allies\u201d after it shut the Strait of Hormuz <\/a>and \u200cthe US reimposed a naval blockade of Iranian <\/a>ports.<\/p>\n

\u201cRegional energy exports are either shared by all, or denied to all,\u201d Iran\u2019s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said in a statement carried by the IRNA state news agency on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

Analysts have said Iran has been signalling \u200bit may use its Houthi <\/a>allies in Yemen to shut the Bab el-Mandeb gateway to the Red Sea, opening a new front against Washington and putting two of the world\u2019s most vital energy arteries at risk.<\/p>\n

The narrow gateway links the Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden, through which Saudi oil exports and a substantial share of global shipping pass.<\/p>\n

A senior Houthi official warned on Monday that the group was prepared to close the Bab el-Mandeb Strait \u2013 a move he said could \u200bsend oil prices soaring to $200 a barrel \u2013 if Saudi Arabia continued to attack Yemen, according to a report on Iran\u2019s Press TV website.<\/p>\n

Houthi forces fired missiles at Saudi Arabia<\/a> after accusing the kingdom of bombing an airport under their control on Monday, breaking \u2060a four-year truce in the conflict between the kingdom and the Iran-aligned group.<\/p>\n

The Houthis have already shown they can choke global commerce through the Bab el-Mandeb. After the Gaza war \u200cbegan in \u200cOctober \u200b2023, the Iran-backed group launched attacks on commercial shipping in the Red Sea, saying it was targeting vessels linked to Israel in support of Palestinians.<\/p>\n

The latest threat to global shipping comes a day after the US military said it began a fresh round of strikes<\/a> \u201cto continue degrading Iranian capabilities used \u2060to attack commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz.\u201d<\/p>\n

The United States said Iran had \u200battacked seven commercial ships over the last week, leading to nearly a dozen crew members being killed, \u200bmissing or injured.<\/p>\n

The US military said late on Tuesday that it hit dozens of military targets near the Strait of Hormuz and Iranian coastal areas. The wave of strikes lasted seven hours, the US Central Command \u200csaid in a statement.<\/p>\n

The IRGC said on Wednesday \u200bthat the Strait of Hormuz would remain closed until what it described as \u201cthe end of America\u2019s evils\u201d. Before the war began in February, about a fifth of global oil and gas shipments \u2060passed through Hormuz each day.<\/p>\n

\"StraitStrait of Hormuz (PA Graphics) <\/p>\n

The IRGC said they had targeted what they described \u2060as command-and-control, logistics, fuel and military equipment facilities belonging to \u200bthe US Fifth Fleet in Bahrain, in response to the latest US strikes in the Strait of Hormuz.<\/p>\n

They also said they had set fire to and destroyed what they described as a US logistics facility in Kuwait\u2019s Mina Abdullah and that their air force had struck what they described as a US base at Azraq in Jordan, targeting aircraft hangars. They said some of the US attacks had been launched from bases on Jordanian territory.<\/p>\n

Earlier on Wednesday, Kuwait\u2019s state news agency reported that a fire was brought under control at a site targeted in Iranian attacks. <\/p>\n

Jordan\u2019s air defence intercepted and shot down three ballistic missiles that entered the country\u2019s airspace from Iranian territory early on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

The hostilities between Iran and the US <\/a>reignited last week, fraying an already fragile truce reached in June \u200cafter several months of fighting that has killed \u2060thousands.<\/p>\n

President Donald Trump <\/a>on Tuesday threatened to hit Iranian power plants and bridges next week unless Tehran resumes negotiations.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ll save the energy targets for last, but ultimately we\u2019ll hit energy targets,\u201d Trump said in an interview with Fox News.<\/p>\n

\"USUS president Donald Trump: threatened to bomb Iranian power plants and bridges next week unless Tehran resumes negotiations. Photograph: Tierney L Cross\/The New York Times<\/p>\n

US negotiators had been in touch with their Iranian counterparts to tell \u200cthem \u201cyou better make a deal\u201d, Trump added.<\/p>\n

As tensions escalated, Trump on Monday floated the idea of a 20 per cent fee on shipping through the strait, which drew sharp criticism from the UN shipping agency and others. On Tuesday, he scrapped the idea \u200band said, without providing details, that he would instead seek investment deals with Gulf states.<\/p>\n

Oil prices rose on Wednesday, after closing up \u200b2 per cent to a one-month high on Tuesday, as the latest attacks deepened a supply disruption in the Strait of Hormuz. \u2013 Reuters<\/p>\n

(c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tehran has threatened to close \u201call other export corridors that benefit the US and its allies\u201d after it…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":550594,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[969,42,166933,11829,150432,43,150177,40,38,41,39,115],"class_list":["post-550593","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-donald-trump","tag-headlines","tag-houthi","tag-iran","tag-israel-iran-conflict","tag-news","tag-strait-of-hormuz","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-united-states"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/550593","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=550593"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/550593\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/550594"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=550593"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=550593"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=550593"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}