Iran News

Iran and its proxies have carried out dozens of pinpoint strikes on infrastructure in the Gulf since the start of the war, systematically disabling critical equipment and causing cascading failures and economic damage region-wide in a deft campaign that helps explain how the Islamic Republic has held its own against the more powerful US military.Iran and the allies it arms went after vital oil-routing systems at Fujairah in the United Arab Emirates, the main port outside the Strait of Hormuz, disabling operations for weeks.

Transit routes in the Strait of Hormuz deemed illegal by Iran will soon be closed, an adviser to the Revolutionary Guards' Commander told the semi-official Fars News Agency on Wednesday, referring to the southern pathway hugging Oman's coast.Mohammadreza Naqdi said these "few routes" had been created by blasting and damaging some of the rocky passages in the strategic waterway and were used by "small boats smuggling oil and transferring it to tankers", challenging the narrative that Gulf oil exports are regaining pre-war levels."The Strait of Hormuz is closed…

The US Energy Information Administration raised its oil price forecast for this year and next year on Tuesday, as global stockpiles fall rapidly and diesel markets remain tight due to the ongoing Iran war.Attacks on Saudi Arabia's East-West Pipeline, a key export route for one of the world's largest oil producers, underscore the risk of further disruptions to physical oil flows and prices, the EIA said in its Short-Term Energy Outlook.At the same time, exceptionally tight diesel supplies are boosting demand for crude as refiners seek to maximize diesel production…

Oil prices fell about 1% on Friday as markets weighed the possibility of a truce between the US and Iran against concerns that increasing attacks against Saudi Arabia by Houthi fighters could disrupt supply from the Middle Eastern producer.Brent futures were down $1.14, or 1.1%, at $105.46 a barrel by 10:03 a.m. EDT (1403 GMT), while West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude fell $1.05, also 1.1%, to $93.56.That put Brent up about 2% for the week and WTI down about 7%.US and Iranian…

US and Iranian negotiators in New York are exploring a phased path out of war that would involve Tehran reopening the Strait of Hormuz and Washington lifting its economic blockade of Iran, sources close to the talks said.The strait has become the central bargaining chip in efforts to end the nearly seven-month US-Iran conflict, with Iran seeking relief from the US blockade that is choking its economy and Washington seeking free passage for ships on the global oil supply route now blocked by Tehran.The talks face a big obstacle as neither side wants to be the first to surrender its leverage…

Euro zone bond yields fell for a second straight day on Tuesday, hitting their lowest in almost two weeks after Iran raised the prospect of reopening the Strait of Hormuz and Washington hinted it could restart talks with Tehran, pushing oil prices lower.Germany's 10-year bond yield, the benchmark for the bloc, fell 1 basis point to 3.44% after rising as much as 4 bps earlier in the session. It fell 7 bps on Monday as energy prices retreated.A senior Iranian official told Reuters that the strait…

Saudi Arabia on Tuesday denied an Iraqi claim that it had bought 25 oil tankers, saying the information was inaccurate, after Iraq linked the alleged purchases to a sharp increase in the cost of shipping its crude.Iraqi Oil Minister Basim Mohammed told a parliamentary session that Saudi Arabia had bought 25 oil tankers worth an estimated $4.5 billion and said the purchases were behind a steep rise in the cost of transporting Iraqi oil. His remarks were published by an Iraqi media…

Shipowners have already ordered more than twice as many supertankers this year as in all of 2025, a buying spree worth over $20 billion that is the biggest for at least 25 years, as the US-Iran war redraws trade routes and boosts demand for long-haul crude shipments.Data from Signal Group, a shipping analytics platform, show 217 Very Large Crude Carriers ordered so far in 2026, against 93 last year. Allied Shipbroking recorded 164 VLCC orders, up from 83. A VLCC carries about…

Commodity vessel transits through the Strait of Hormuz dwindled to just three ships on Wednesday, down from 12 a day earlier and well below the 10-day average of about 17, preliminary ship-tracking data showed on Thursday.The figures exclude any vessels that might have passed through the waterway with their Automatic Identification System transponders turned off to avoid detection.Of the three vessels, an empty Supramax dry bulk ship entered the strait via the Iranian route, while an empty petroleum product tanker entered through a dark route…

Higher energy prices resulting from the Iran war could add nearly €7.4 billion ($8.5 billion) to Spanish manufacturers' costs through the end of 2026, an industry lobby group said on Wednesday.Of the extra costs stemming from current prices, gas would account for €4.2 billion and electricity for €3.2 billion, with 70% of the impact expected between September and December, the Alliance for the Competitiveness of Spanish Industry said in a statement.The group, which represents 60% of Spain's gross industrial product, urged authorities to maintain existing support and introduce stronger measures

Iran said on Wednesday it had attacked 10 ships near the Strait of Hormuz after the U.S. sank five Iranian oil tankers, in the biggest declared wave of tit-for-tat attacks on shipping by both sides since the start of the six-month-old war.The attacks sent the price of oil surging, with benchmark Brent crude LCOc1 futures breaching $100 a barrel for the first time since July. At least one seafarer aboard a tanker was reported killed and another listed as missing.Iran also said it had fired ballistic missiles at a base used by U.S. forces in Jordan.

A U.S. campaign to throttle Iran's economy by blockading its oil exports and stopping sanctions evasion is growing increasingly difficult to withstand, three senior Iranian sources said.Washington has in recent weeks sought to ratchet up the economic pressure on Tehran, in an effort to extract concessions in any future negotiation that six months of conflict have so far failed to secure.Although Iran's clerical rulers managed to bypass sanctions for decades, the latest U.S. moves have left them in a far more sensitive position…

Iran has added more ships it deems as non-compliant and subject to fines, confiscation or detention if they try to sail through the Strait of Hormuz, according to a government website.Tehran said on August 24 it had blacklisted 45 tankers that had broken its rules for navigating the Strait of Hormuz, and would take action against any vessels transferring loads, escalating its threats over the key waterway six months into a ‌war that began with U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran.In an update on the website of the Persian Gulf Strait Authority (PGSA)…

Saudi Arabia, the world's biggest crude exporter, said on Wednesday that an Iranian attack on an oil tanker owned by its national shipping company had killed two Filipino seafarers.Sidr, owned by Bahri, was one of two supertankers carrying Saudi oil reported to have been hit late on Monday while transiting the Strait of Hormuz.Tehran has threatened tankers attempting to sail through the narrow waterway without authorisation, impeding energy exports from neighbouring oil-rich Gulf…

The U.S. launched a barrage of airstrikes against Iran on Tuesday, prompting Iranian retaliation, in the most serious escalation in weeks in a conflict that has driven up global energy prices and weighed on President Donald Trump's popularity at home.The U.S. military said late on Tuesday it completed its latest wave of strikes on Iran. U.S. forces struck IRGC targets "including air defense sites, radar systems, maritime assets and facilities, mine laying capabilities, and communications sites," the U.S. Central Command said on X. An Axios report, citing U.S. officials, said the U.S.

For the first time on record, Iran has gone about seven weeks without shipping meaningful crude exports through the Strait of Hormuz, as a U.S. naval blockade succeeds where years of sanctions failed by cutting off one of Tehran's main sources of foreign-currency earnings. Unlike previous sanctions campaigns, when Iranian crude continued reaching buyers despite restrictions, the current blockade has stopped fresh crude cargoes reaching China, Tehran's only major remaining oil customer, increasing pressure on government finances and foreign-currency reserves.Since the U.S.

A tanker has reported being struck by three projectiles while sailing out of the Strait of Hormuz, 17 nautical miles east of Oman's Khasab, the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations agency (UKMTO) said on Tuesday.No casualties or environmental impact have been reported, UKMTO said.TRANSITSThe number of vessels sailing through the Strait of Hormuz was little changed on Monday compared with the weekend, hovering around five, preliminary ship-tracking data showed on Tuesday, below the 10-day average of around 14.Four of the vessels entered the strait and one exited…

The number of visible commodity vessels transiting the Strait of Hormuz dropped to five per day over the weekend, shipping data showed on Monday, as companies tread cautiously amid continued attacks on ships.The actual number of ships passing the strait could be higher as some vessels have switched off their automatic identification system to evade attacks.Weekend traffic was limited to small-sized vessels, data from commodities firm Kpler showed. These included two liquefied…

Iran's energy hub of Kharg Island is being blown to smithereens, U.S. President Donald Trump said on Sunday, after forces hit two rocket launchers on another island in the first known American strikes on the Islamic republic since late July.Attacking Kharg, which handled 90% of Iran's oil exports before the war launched by U.S. and Israeli attacks on February 28, would severely disrupt its energy trade and put huge pressure on its economy."Kharg Island being blown to smithereens!!! President DJT," Trump said on social media, but gave no further details.The White House and the U.S.

Iran condemned the United States' new economic sanctions on Friday as "state terrorism" and said other countries were legally obliged not to implement them, while the U.S. Treasury Department announced additional targeted Iran-related measures.The Iranian foreign ministry's statement came as mediators stepped up efforts to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, which handled 20% of world oil supplies before the war began six months ago and whose status remains the biggest obstacle to a…

U.S. President Donald Trump said on Tuesday that all mines had been detonated or removed from international waters of the Strait of Hormuz and that Iran has been told that any ship or boat placing new mines will be destroyed.In a post on Truth Social, Trump said the United States, through its Space Force, was watching "every square inch" of the Strait, a key waterway in the global energy supply chain."There is a Zero Tolerance policy on mine placement in full force and effect," Trump said.The U.S.

Oil prices fell about 4% to a one-week low on Tuesday as traders shrugged off the latest U.S. sanctions campaign against Iran, viewing economic pressure as posing less risk to oil supplies than a military escalation.Brent crude futures were down $3.83, or 4.2%, to $88.34 a barrel by 11:44 a.m. EDT, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude futures fell $3.34, or 3.9%, to $81.67.Both benchmarks hit their lowest levels since August 17.The shift from military conflict to economic pressure in the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran has reduced some of the oil market's anxiety…

Iran and Oman are still working on the details of an agreement on the Strait of Hormuz, a senior Iranian source said on Wednesday, after Iran's Revolutionary Guards said the two countries had agreed how to share the waterway and its revenues.The elite force's spokesperson, echoing Tehran's official stance, also said the strait would not open unless the U.S. met Tehran's conditions under an interim ceasefire agreement that was struck in June before unravelling. Those conditions include an end to the U.S.