{"id":529415,"date":"2026-07-16T18:26:31","date_gmt":"2026-07-16T18:26:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/529415\/"},"modified":"2026-07-16T18:26:31","modified_gmt":"2026-07-16T18:26:31","slug":"us-steps-up-strikes-as-iran-threatens-to-halt-mideast-energy-exports-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/529415\/","title":{"rendered":"US steps up strikes as Iran threatens to halt Mideast energy exports"},"content":{"rendered":"

The US reimposed a naval blockade on Iran<\/a> and intensified its airstrike campaign overnight in retaliation for Tehran’s attacks on ships<\/a> trying to pass through the Strait of Hormuz. <\/p>\n

The American strikes hit an Iranian army barracks, killed at least seven troops and wounded hundreds of people across the country, Iranian officials said.<\/p>\n

Days of back-and-forth strikes<\/a> by the US and Iran across the Middle East \u2014 and renewed threats<\/a> to the waterway crucial to global energy supplies \u2014 have shredded the interim deal<\/a> to end the conflict and the region could tip back into all-out war.<\/p>\n

The US first imposed a blockade in April and then lifted it last month after signing the interim deal<\/a> that paused the fighting and set a 60-day period for negotiations over issues such as Iran\u2019s nuclear programme<\/a>. Those talks have stalled as fighting over the Strait of Hormuz<\/a> has intensified.<\/p>\n

When the US and Israel launched the war on Iran on February 28, Tehran effectively closed the waterway to shipping traffic \u2014 a move that sent the price of oil, fertiliser and many other goods soaring far beyond the region and gave Iran major leverage in negotiations. Those rising prices pose a particular challenge to US President Donald Trump and his Republican Party, which hopes to retain control of Congress in elections in November. But Washington has struggled to successfully reopen the waterway.<\/a><\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

A billboard bearing anti-Trump messages, including the phrase “We Kill Trump,” at Islamic Revolution Square in downtown Tehran, Iran. (Source: Associated Press)<\/p>\n

About 24 hours after the blockade went into effect, the US military opened fire on and disabled a merchant vessel on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

Iran\u2019s parliament speaker and lead negotiator, Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, said Iran was prepared for a fuller military confrontation if the US does not live up to the terms of the interim deal, and Iran\u2019s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard threatened to halt all energy exports from the Middle East over the blockade.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe export of oil and gas from the region will be either for everyone or for no one,\u201d the Guard said.<\/p>\n

Soon after the US launched its third wave of strikes in 24 hours, Trump said Iran was ready to strike a peace deal, but he did not elaborate.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey don\u2019t like what we\u2019re doing, and they do want to settle. We\u2019ll find out whether or not we settle with them, or we just finish it off,\u201d he said Wednesday at a defence summit at the US Army War College in Pennsylvania.<\/p>\n

\"U.S.<\/p>\n

U.S. sailors conduct nighttime flight operations aboard USS George H.W. Bush (CVN 77) while transiting the Arabian Sea. (Source: Supplied)<\/p>\n

US and Iran both launch attacks as the blockade is reimposed<\/p>\n

The US carried out a wave of strikes, hitting dozens of targets overnight, the military\u2019s Central Command said Thursday, and then resumed striking Iran during daylight \u2014 an unusual move that further signalled the increasing tempo of the attacks.<\/p>\n

Within 17 hours of reimposing the blockade on Iranian ports, Central Command said US forces had “redirected” two commercial vessels attempting to run the blockade.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe US military remains vigilant and prepared to ensure full compliance,\u201d it said on social media.<\/p>\n

Among the US military’s targets was Greater Tunb Island, which is viewed as a strategic point in the Strait of Hormuz. Central Command said the attack targeted Iranian defense and missile sites.<\/p>\n

Iran took control of three islands \u2014 Abu Musa, Greater Tunb and Lesser Tunb \u2014 from what would become the United Arab Emirates in 1971. The UAE has sought to reclaim them.<\/p>\n

Some analysts have suggested that if the US seized the islands, they could allow it to control the strait.<\/p>\n

The US military said its bombing campaign hit targets along Iran’s southern coast in Bandar Abbas, Khormuj, Ahvaz, Qeshm, Bushehr and Kuh-e Stak \u2014 a list that includes several coastal towns and another island near the strait.<\/p>\n

The US and Iran have been trading strikes in recent weeks. (Source: 1News)<\/p>\n

Another strike targeted a barracks for Iran\u2019s 388th Mechanized Infantry Brigade, which operates tanks and armored vehicles, in Sistan and Baluchestan province, Iranian state television reported. The report said the Americans fired at least 13 missiles in the attack and that the seven dead included conscripts and career soldiers. A number of troops were wounded.<\/p>\n

More than 35 people have been killed and more than 300 wounded by US airstrikes in recent days, said Hossein Kermanpour, a spokesperson for the Iranian Health Ministry. At least 72 people are hospitalized, he added.<\/p>\n

Kermanpour did not break down the figures between civilians and combatants.<\/p>\n

The announcement marked the first overall toll given by Iranian authorities for this round of fighting. The number of wounded was far larger than for any other recent violence between Iran and the US.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

A woman stands at the water’s edge along the Strait of Hormuz as a plume of smoke rises in the background following an explosion, off Bandar Abbas, Iran. (Source: Associated Press)<\/p>\n

The army said it would make “a decisive response to this aggressive action by the American enemy,” according to state TV.<\/p>\n

Missile alert warnings sounded in Bahrain and Kuwait early Wednesday as they faced incoming Iranian fire \u2014 a daily occurrence in recent days. Jordan said it shot down three incoming Iranian missiles. Iran claimed attacks on the three nations, all of which host US forces.<\/p>\n

US Navy Admiral Brad Cooper, who leads Central Command, said in a statement that Iran had launched dozens of missiles and drones at neighbouring Gulf Arab countries.<\/p>\n

Trump told the Fox News Channel on Tuesday night that more US strikes against Iran would come over the next two days and that bridges and power plants could be targeted by next week unless negotiations resume. Already, the US has struck at least one bridge.<\/p>\n

“You better make a deal, or you\u2019re not going to have anything left,” Trump warned.<\/p>\n

Iran\u2019s ambassador to the United Nations, Amir Saeid Iravani, criticised America\u2019s attacks.<\/p>\n

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

Strait of Hormuz remains at the heart of the fighting<\/p>\n

The latest round of fighting is focused on the Strait of Hormuz, through which a fifth of the world\u2019s oil and natural gas trade passes during peacetime. How to reopen the strait has bedeviled the US since Iran choked it off in the early days of the war.<\/p>\n

During the interim deal, some ships began moving through the passage using a route near Oman overseen by the US military that is outside Tehran\u2019s control.<\/p>\n

In recent days, Iran attacked ships using that route \u2014 and back-and-forth attacks ensued. The US has threatened to reopen the strait by force \u2014 but experts say that would require a much bigger armada if not tens of thousands of ground troops. Imposing the blockade is another way to put pressure on Iran.<\/p>\n

But in the meantime, oil prices are rising.<\/a> The price for Brent crude oil, the international standard, traded above $85 a barrel on Wednesday \u2014 more than 15% higher than the price before the war, but still well below the nearly $120 reached at the height of the conflict.<\/p>\n

Analysts with the International Monetary Fund warned Wednesday that while a surplus of oil had kept prices low, “much of that room has now been used up”.<\/p>\n

“As tensions flare again in the Strait of Hormuz, that room is now smaller and shrinking further as spare capacity has been deployed, demand has compressed, and inventories have been drawn down,” Azim Sadikov and Jean-Marc Natal wrote in a blog post. “Unless inventories are replenished, the world will start from a weaker position when the next shock comes”. <\/p>\n

In other developments, the US Treasury said Wednesday that it imposed sanctions on a network of seven people and companies across Iran, Nigeria, Italy and Russia who it accused of helping procure weapons for the Revolutionary Guard.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The US reimposed a naval blockade on Iran and intensified its airstrike campaign overnight in retaliation for Tehran’s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":528087,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,5107,43,64,40,38,41,39,66],"class_list":["post-529415","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-middle-east","tag-news","tag-north-america","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-us-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/529415","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=529415"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/529415\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/528087"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=529415"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=529415"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=529415"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}