After the US and Israel went to war with Iran in February 2026, Iran shut the Strait of Hormuz, and the US has blockaded Iranian ports since April. Independent and regional sources report on the near halt to tanker traffic through a route for about a fifth of the world's seaborne oil and LNG, the attacks on shipping and the talks to reopen it.
Strait-of-hormuz
During the ongoing conflict between Iran and the United States, the Arab Gulf states have borne the brunt of Iranian drone and missile strikes while incurring mounting economic costs. With limited prospects for a…
World
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When the Iran war closed the Strait of Hormuz earlier this year, about 20% of the world’s liquefied natural gas supply stopped flowing almost overnight. Roughly 90% of the LNG that moves through the strait goes to Asia…
Iran
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Islam Times - Mohammad Mokhber, a senior advisor to the Leader of the Islamic Revolution His Eminence Ayatollah Sayyed Mojtaba Khamenei has warned that Iran’s adversaries will ultimately face defeat in the Persian Gulf…
Economics
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This is a follow-up to my previous piece on the economic effects of the Persian Gulf sulfur and urea cutoff. In that piece I argued that the public conversation about the Strait of Hormuz has fixated on crude oil and…
Uncategorized
Introduction This is a follow-up to my previous piece on the economic effects of the Persian Gulf sulfur and urea cutoff. In that piece I argued that the public conversation about the Strait of Hormuz has fixated on…
Middle East & Africa
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On 4 October, Rashad al-Alimi, head of Yemen’s Presidential Leadership Council, went on television from Saudi Arabia to announce a campaign to retake the territory still held by the Houthis and restore state authority…
Uncategorized
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Reprinted with permission from Trita Parsi‘s Substack: Michelle Brohard, head of policy and geopolitical risk at Kpler, speculated in a recent interview with energy analyst Rory Johnston (@commoditycontext) that the…
Enewsletter
Reports that more oil is getting through the Strait of Hormuz have been heralded as a win for the Trump administration, but experts say this kind of happy talk hides the fact that the war remains in a quagmire. As…
Middle East & Africa
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The war involving Iran, Israel and the United States has reshaped the strategic balance across the Middle East, leaving the Strait of Hormuz at the centre of a wider contest over regional security, economic leverage and…
Larry C. Johnson
Donald Trump would like you to know that the Strait of Hormuz is in tremendous shape. Possibly the best shape in its history. On September 27, he told reporters that “last night, we took a record amount of oil out of the…
Oil & Gas
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A Pipeline Back On, and Nowhere to Go On 22 September, Saudi Aramco began pumping crude again through the East-West pipeline, the 1,200-kilometre line that carries oil from the Gulf coast to the Red Sea port of Yanbu…
Larry C. Johnson
Once again I am indebted to Karl W. Miller, whose analysis of the energy crisis unleashed by the war with Iran has become essential reading for me. Karl has a habit of seeing around corners. He anticipated the Houthi…
Middle East
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When governments talk about reducing dependence on the Strait of Hormuz, the discussion usually turns to pipelines in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. For Asian importers, that is only part of the story. The…
Europe
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The winter arithmetic is getting the attention. The more revealing test comes on 1 January, when a ban Europe designed to be irreversible takes effect in the middle of a gas crunch it did not plan for. Europe’s energy…
Americas
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On September 26, Donald Trump told reporters outside the White House that he was rejecting a seven-day plan Iran had submitted to reopen the Strait of Hormuz. “That deal would not be acceptable,” he said, adding that…
Middle East
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Over recent months, the straits of Hormuz and Bab el-Mandeb have become synonymous with geopolitical jostling. Whoever controls these narrow waterways governs the flow of maritime traffic from the Arabian Sea and the Red…
Iran-war
Since the U.S. war against Iran started earlier this year, Washington has pressed its allies in Europe and Asia to “ step up ” with military aid to help the United States reopen the Strait of Hormuz. Despite persistent…
Larry C. Johnson
This article is the result of my conversation earlier today during my flight from Istanbul to London. I was sitting next to a FEDEX pilot who was on his way to Paris via London. I asked him about aviation fuel prices and…
Commentary
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Earlier this month, President Donald Trump shared a Washington Post opinion piece on his social media, arguing that South Korea should send its Cheongung-II air-defense system to Ukraine. Additionally, the Trump…
World News
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Iran has offered to reopen the Strait of Hormuz within seven days if the United States eases military pressure and lifts its blockade on Iranian ports, creating a potential opening for renewed diplomacy between Tehran…
US
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Islam Times - While Trump speaks of Iran’s defeat and full control of the Strait of Hormuz, global markets appear to be taking a different narrative seriously. Orders for more than $20 billion worth of VLCC tankers and…
Opinion
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On Monday, only four ships passed through the Strait of Hormuz; before the war, roughly 125 made the crossing each day. That same day, a Panama-flagged tanker, the El Gaia, was ablaze off the coast. Iran’s Revolutionary…
Middle East
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The conflict between Iran and the US appears to have reached a stalemate. The US Navy continues to prevent Iranian vessels and others from transiting to or from Iranian ports. Iran, meanwhile, threatens shipping moving…
Behind The Headlines
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) continue to target US vessels and tankers violating the Strait of Hormuz blockade, as its advanced weapons program has aided its allies in Yemen to become the region’s…
Geopolitics
Undersea cables are indispensable to the emerging AI economies of the Gulf states, making them a major point of vulnerability that Iran could exploit if it chooses to move further up the escalation ladder. John Aitken is…
Asia
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Islam Times - Iran’s acceptance of the postponement of the Oman meeting is a sign of Tehran’s sincerity in pursuing regional dialogue. The Persian Gulf and Gulf of Oman littoral states must now move beyond extra-regional…
Economy
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TODAY’S NUMBERS: $108 (Brent crude) · 4.98% (US 10-year Treasury yield) · $4,330 (Gold) Oil is pricing a wider Gulf war, yields are pricing the Fed hike war-driven inflation now demands — and gold, the classic war hedge…
World News
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Middle East diplomacy has hit another setback as a planned regional meeting on the Strait of Hormuz was postponed, while attacks around the region’s two major oil transit routes increased concerns about global energy…
Northeast Asia
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Japan’s Foreign Minister Motegi Toshimitsu phoned his Iranian counterpart, Abbas Araghchi, on September 8, 2026, to express concern over the de facto closure of the Strait of Hormuz. It was reportedly the ninth such…
Energy News
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Saudi Arabia has closed its East-West oil pipeline due to a drone attack linked to Iranian-backed militias in Iraq. This pipeline is crucial for Saudi Arabia, as it allows the country to bypass the congested Strait of…
Energy Geopolitics
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The Strait of Hormuz has become the central pressure point in the escalating confrontation between the United States and Iran. Before the conflict, roughly 20 million barrels of oil moved through the narrow waterway each…
Iran
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Islam Times - Two US vessels, eight oil tankers, and 10 other ships attempting to pass through the prohibited zone of the Strait of Hormuz have been targeted in the latest wave of Iran’s retaliatory operations amid the…
Middle East
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Asia’s long resilience to turmoil in the Strait of Hormuz is wearing thin. After months of burning through reserves and shielding consumers from the worst of it, the region’s oil importers are running out of room — and a…
Archive
Previously secret military files reveal links between the use of torture by British forces in Oman and Northern Ireland during the 1970s. An army major who led the worst of these interrogations in the Gulf would later…
World News
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Iran says it will announce a new restricted zone in the Gulf and publish maps for a new shipping corridor through the Strait of Hormuz in the coming days, adding another layer of tension around one of the world’s most…
US
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Islam Times - Trump calls the war with Iran a “military conflict” and “small potatoes” and, in an attempt to mislead American public opinion ahead of the November election, claims that the Strait of Hormuz is becoming…
Larry C. Johnson
Karl Miller is out with another report on the state of the oil production infrastructure in the Persian Gulf and, as always, it is a must read. Unfortunately, it is behind a firewall but he has given me permission to…
US
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Islam Times - By symbolically renaming the Strait of Hormuz the “Trump Strait,” Trump is seeking to challenge the practical constraints imposed on the waterway. But the limited passage of oil tankers under military…
Middle East & Africa
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On 31 August, two supertankers carrying Saudi crude were struck by unknown projectiles within minutes of one another as they sailed out of the Strait of Hormuz near Oman. Each carried about two million barrels, and no…
Uncategorized
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Reprinted with permission from Tom Engelhardt’s Substack: I was born on July 20, 1944, in the midst of World War II. My father had just returned from Burma where he had been operations officer for the 1st Air Commandos…
Middle East
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The Donald Trump administration, acting with the peremptoriness of a capricious landlord, has carried to its logical conclusion a policy that many analysts are already calling “imperial suicide.” The endless saga of U.S…
Larry C. Johnson
Somebody should tell the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps that the Strait of Hormuz is closed for business — American business, that is, and completely under control. President Trump has been saying so for weeks. On…
Middle East & Africa
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Five ships a day where a hundred used to sail. Six months after the US-Israel strikes on Iran, the world’s most critical energy chokepoint has not merely slowed, it has effectively stopped. The numbers describe a…
Middle East & Africa
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Central Claim The diplomatic traffic through Tehran this week, Qatar, Pakistan and Oman all visiting in seven days, has generated the appearance of momentum toward reopening the Strait of Hormuz. The substance tells a…
Commentary
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Every crisis in the Middle East returns the world’s attention to the same stretch of water. When tankers are seized, or missiles fly near the Persian Gulf, oil prices move, insurers reprice risk, shipping reroutes, and…
Middle East
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Here’s the number that tells you more about this crisis than any missile count: War-risk insurance on a tanker passing through Hormuz used to run about 0.15 percent of the vessel’s value. Barely worth mentioning on a…
US
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Islam Times - For several days, Western media outlets have highlighted limited tanker traffic through the southern route of the Strait of Hormuz and spoken of the return of oil flows. But the creation of a special route…
Energy News
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For decades, the conventional narrative has been one in which renewables have been criticized for intermittency issues, whereas fossil fuels were the ones to provide energy security. The Iran war and protracted closure…