Iran threatens to halt Mideast energy exports

DUBAI, UAE: The US reimposed a naval blockade on Iran and intensified its airstrike campaign on Wednesday in retaliation for Tehran’s attacks on ships trying to pass through the Strait of Hormuz, Iranian officials said. The American strikes hit an Iranian army barracks, killing at least seven troops and wounding more than 260 people across the country, they added.

Days of back‑and‑forth strikes by the US and Iran across the US reimposed a naval blockade on Iran and intensified its airstrike campaign on Wednesday in retaliation for Tehran’s attacks on ships attempting to pass through the Strait of Hormuz, Iranian officials said.

American strikes hit an Iranian army barracks, killing at least seven troops and wounding more than 260 people across the country, state media reported. Days of reciprocal strikes by the US and Iran across the Middle East, and renewed threats to the waterway crucial to global energy supplies, have effectively shredded the interim deal to end the conflict and raised the risk of all‑out war.

The US first imposed a blockade in April and lifted it last month after signing an interim deal that paused the fighting and set a 60‑day period for negotiations on issues including Iran’s nuclear programme. Those talks have stalled as fighting over the Strait of Hormuz has intensified.

When the US and Israel launched the war on Iran on 28 February, Tehran effectively closed the waterway to shipping traffic, a move that sent the price of oil, fertiliser and other goods sharply higher and gave Iran leverage in negotiations. Washington has struggled to reopen the strait.

Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard threatened on Wednesday to halt all energy exports from the Middle East in response to the blockade. “The export of oil and gas from the region will be either for everyone or for no one,” it said.

CENTCOM said US forces carried out a wave of strikes, hitting dozens of targets over seven hours overnight and resuming strikes during daylight — an unusual escalation that signalled an increased tempo of operations.

Iranian state television reported one strike targeted a barracks for the 388th Mechanised Infantry Brigade in Sistan and Baluchestan province, saying at least 13 missiles were fired and that the seven dead included conscripts and career soldiers. Including the barracks attack, more than 30 people have been killed in recent days, government spokesperson Fatemeh Mohajerani said.

Hossein Kermanpour, a Health Ministry spokesperson, said more than 260 people were wounded in overnight strikes alone. The army said it would make “a decisive response to this aggressive action by the American enemy,” according to state TV.

Missile alerts sounded in Bahrain and Kuwait early on Wednesday as they faced incoming Iranian fire. Jordan said it shot down three incoming Iranian missiles. Iran claimed attacks on the three nations, all of which host US forces. CENTCOM commander Admiral Brad Cooper said Iran had launched dozens of missiles and drones at neighbouring Gulf Arab countries.

By RSS/AP

President Donald Trump told Fox News that more US strikes would come over the next two days and that bridges and power plants could be targeted by next week unless negotiations resume. “Next week it gets really bad for them,” he said. “You better make a deal, or you’re not going to have anything left.”

Iran’s UN ambassador, Amir Saeid Iravani, criticised the American attacks, writing to the UN secretary‑general that “the US is the aggressor, not the victim,” according to the state‑run IRNA news agency.

The latest fighting centres on the Strait of Hormuz, through which about a fifth of the world’s oil and natural gas trade passes in peacetime. During the interim deal, some ships used a route near Oman overseen by the US military that lies outside Tehran’s control, but Iran has attacked vessels using that route in recent days, prompting further exchanges of fire.

The tit‑for‑tat violence has pushed crude prices higher. Brent crude traded above $85 a barrel on Wednesday, more than 15% higher than before the war, though below the nearly $120 reached at the conflict’s height.

Analysts at the International Monetary Fund warned that a surplus of oil that had kept prices low has been largely used up. “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.”

Regional mediators are continuing efforts to bring the United States and Iran back to the negotiating table.