{"id":765498,"date":"2026-07-16T03:24:09","date_gmt":"2026-07-16T03:24:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/765498\/"},"modified":"2026-07-16T03:24:09","modified_gmt":"2026-07-16T03:24:09","slug":"iran-war-live-updates-u-s-and-iran-exchange-strikes-after-trump-steps-up-threats-to-tehran","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/765498\/","title":{"rendered":"Iran War Live Updates: U.S. and Iran Exchange Strikes After Trump Steps Up Threats to Tehran"},"content":{"rendered":"

President Trump\u2019s first naval blockade on Iranian ports in April caused oil prices to rise, but not to the stratospheric levels some feared. And Tehran\u2019s oil exports plunged, depriving Iran of billions in revenue.<\/p>\n

The strategy may be harder to pull off a second time without inflicting broader collateral damage to markets.<\/p>\n

U.S. oil reserves, which have been steadily drawn down since the start of the war to help combat global shortages, are now at their lowest levels since 1983<\/a>. Commercial inventories also have been run down. And other oil-producing countries in the region may have a harder time getting their ships out because of the heightened risks.<\/p>\n

Another wild card is China. Usually the world\u2019s largest oil importer, China has been helping to keep oil prices at bay<\/a> by significantly decreasing imports of crude. New data<\/a> on Tuesday showed that pattern held at least through June. But China might not continue on that path.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have now run through all of the buffers which helped moderate oil and natural gas and to some extent fertilizer and helium prices for the first three or four months of the war,\u201d said David L. Goldwyn, a former U.S. diplomat and Energy Department official.<\/p>\n

A month after signing a truce, Iran and the United States have slid back to open warfare. Conditions around the Strait of Hormuz, a vital waterway for oil and gas shipments, have deteriorated significantly after days of back-and-forth strikes.<\/p>\n

With Iran attacking more ships, Mr. Trump announced on Monday that the United States would reinstate its blockade of Iranian ports. He also said he would charge a 20 percent fee<\/a> on cargo transiting the strait, though a day later said he would \u201creplace\u201d the fees for \u201cvarious\u201d states in the Persian Gulf that invested in the United States.<\/p>\n

His turnabout left key questions unaddressed and could stir more uncertainty for shippers. Oil prices soared in response. Brent crude, the international benchmark, was trading near $87 a barrel on Wednesday, its highest level in about a month.<\/p>\n

Tehran early this month. The Strait of Hormuz blockade dealt a major blow to Iran\u2019s oil exports and economy.Credit…Arash Khamooshi\/Polaris for The New York Times<\/p>\n

\u201cEven without a return to full-out combat, it might be hard to keep a lid on prices,\u201d Clearview Energy Partners, a Washington research firm, warned in a note to clients.<\/p>\n

Before the war, roughly one-fifth of the world\u2019s oil passed through the Strait of Hormuz, making any threat to shipping a major concern for energy markets. But increasingly, analysts said, countries and companies are adapting to a new normal in which moving energy out of the Persian Gulf is fraught and, at least for a while, expensive. Countries like Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Kuwait are increasingly seeking ways to avoid the strait by expanding pipelines or developing new ones, costly endeavors.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere will be a geopolitical risk premium on oil and gas prices in the future,\u201d said Jorge Le\u00f3n, a senior vice president with Rystad Energy, a consulting firm.<\/p>\n

After the war began on Feb. 28, with joint strikes by the United States and Israel, Iran effectively closed the Strait of Hormuz to ships from most countries. Global oil prices rose, of course, reaching around $100 per barrel a week into the conflict.<\/p>\n

Then on April 13, the United States put in place its first blockade<\/a>, prompting oil prices to shoot above $120 per barrel by the end of the month, the highest since the conflict started.<\/p>\n

But slowly prices sank again. By the time the United States and Iran signed the short-lived memorandum of understanding ending hostilities in mid-June, oil was trading around $80 a barrel. Prices eventually dropped even further as a growing number of vessels sailed through the strait.<\/p>\n

A crude oil tanker at a terminal in Qingdao, China. Usually the world\u2019s largest oil importer, China has been helping to keep oil prices at bay by significantly decreasing imports of crude. Credit…Agence France-Presse \u2014 Getty Images<\/p>\n

For Iran, the effect of the blockade was dire. Oil exports through the Strait of Hormuz accounted for about 80 percent of total Iranian exports. The United States choked off more than 1.5 million barrels per day \u2014 amounting to billions of dollars. Squeezing Tehran\u2019s most important source of income put pressure on Iran to agree to the cease-fire, analysts said.<\/p>\n

And yet Iran also acquired some advantages during that time. As part of the agreement, Mr. Trump granted a temporary waiver to sanctions that allowed for the sale of Iranian oil and an agreement to lift the blockade. Those measures gave Iran \u201cvaluable breathing space,\u201d said Robin Brooks, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, a Washington-based think tank.<\/p>\n

Iran exported around 45 million to 50 million barrels of crude oil after Mr. Trump lifted the first blockade, according to data provided by Rystad. That translates into billions of dollars that went to replenish the government\u2019s coffers.<\/p>\n

That was made possible, Mr. Brooks noted, because Iran was using empty tankers to store oil around the strait.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe big mistake that was made in the first round of the blockade was to allow empty Iran tankers into the gulf,\u201d he said, adding that the Trump administration \u201cdefinitely can\u2019t do that again.\u201d<\/p>\n

He and others speculated that Iran might be in a better position now to ride out the effects of a new blockade.<\/p>\n

The Trump administration, according to Mr. Goldwyn, the former U.S. government official, is essentially trying to convince the oil market that the United States has control over the strait. And, he noted, ahead of critical midterm congressional elections in November, Mr. Trump is also facing political pressure to keep prices at heel.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Iranians can take this pain well past November,\u201d Mr. Goldwyn said, adding, \u201cThe question is, can the Trump administration?\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"President Trump\u2019s first naval blockade on Iranian ports in April caused oil prices to rise, but not to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":765499,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[4,450,300839,5648,451,26675,801,265043,803,129,3,15581,265045,66067,210369,452,453,3479,11636,172974,34791],"class_list":["post-765498","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-breaking-news","tag-breaking-news","tag-breakingnews","tag-defense-and-military-forces","tag-donald-j","tag-headlines","tag-international-relations","tag-iran","tag-islamic-revolutionary-guards-corps","tag-israel","tag-middle-east","tag-news","tag-oman","tag-peace-process","tag-persian-gulf","tag-strait-of-hormuz","tag-top-stories","tag-topstories","tag-trump","tag-united-arab-emirates","tag-united-states-defense-and-military-forces","tag-united-states-international-relations"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/765498","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=765498"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/765498\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/765499"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=765498"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=765498"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=765498"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}