Opening summary: Iran claims attacks on strait of Hormuz ships amid fresh US strikes
Welcome to our live coverage of the latest developments in the Middle East crisis.
Iran attacked a tanker in the strait of Hormuz early on Tuesday, forcing its crew to abandon the ship, as Yemen's Iran-backed Houthis announced they were imposing an immediate maritime blockade of Saudi Arabia in the Red Sea after the two sides traded fire last week for the first time in years.
A Houthi official said the Bab al-Mandeb strait – at the southern end of the Red Sea, through which about 12% of the world's trade usually passes – would be closed to the Saudis in response to the kingdom's “unjust blockade on Yemenis for over 10 yearsâ€.
Saudi Arabia said it would take “all necessary measures to protect its vessels in accordance with international lawâ€.
A 10th consecutive night of US airstrikes has not compelled Tehran to loosen its grip on the strait of Hormuz, a vital route for global energy supplies. But even as Iran's president said the country had returned “full-scale warâ€, the Iranian interior minister travelled to Pakistan – a key mediator in the conflict – for talks.
In key developments:
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The latest US strikes came hours after Donald Trump said Iran would pay “many times over†for killing US soldiers after multiple service members ‌were killed ​in â action ​over the ​weekend.
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A tanker came under attack early Tuesday in the Hormuz strait off Oman, forcing the crew to abandon the vessel, the British military's UK Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) centre said. Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) claimed the attack as well as two other attacks on ships in the waterway on Monday.
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The US military's Central Command said its latest airstrikes were to “degrade†Iran's ability to attack commercial shipping in the strait and included hitting military command centres and missile and drone launch sites.
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Iranian media reported strikes in parts of the country including Bandar Abbas, Tabriz and Bushehr, home to the country's only operational civilian nuclear power.
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Iran launched retaliatory attacks against Bahrain, Kuwait and Jordan, which all host US forces.
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Oil prices softened after hitting their highest levels in more than a month in the previous session. Brent crude futures eased 0.4% to $88.87 â a barrel by 0052 GMT on Tuesday while US West Texas Intermediate crude for September delivery was steady at $82.47 a barrel.
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Democrats have seized on the deaths of three US troops killed in Iranian strikes to urge Trump to urgently reverse his resumption of the war with Iran amid widespread anxiety over climbing casualties.
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In Lebanon, the Lebanese army began taking charge of security in three southern villages, the US said, as a deal to secure an Israeli withdrawal from southern Lebanon and the disarmament of Hezbollah faced its first test on the ground.
Key events
Two oil â tankers loaded with Saudi crude for â China â and ​India have made â U-turns in the Red Sea on Tuesday â and were headed ​toward ‌the ‌Suez, shipping data on LSEG ‌showed.
As Reuters reports, on Monday, Yemen's Houthi militia declared a naval blockade against Saudi Arabia, ​opening a potential new front against the US â in its war ​with Iran ​and raising ​the threat ​to ‌global energy supplies ​and ​trade beyond the Gulf.
US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent â has claimed that there has been a substantial decrease â in China's purchases of Iranian oil.
“We have â sanctioned Chinese … so-called teapot ​refineries, which ‌are the ‌private refineries, and we've ‌seen a substantial decrease in their purchases of Iranian oil,†Bessent said on Tuesday in an interview with Fox Business ‌Network.
“The Chinese, in general, because of the ​prices and because they have a very large strategic petroleum reserve, have â dropped their purchases of crude ​over ​the past few ​months by about ​40%, and ‌that's directly ​pressuring ​the Iranian regime,†Bessent said.
Oil above $90 a barrel
The comments from Fatih Birol, head of the International Energy Security, come amid further rises in the price of oil.
They are up nearly 2% today to over $90 a barrel following the exchange of attacks by the US and â Iran as well as ​threats of a naval blockade of Saudi Arabia by Yemen's Houthis.
Benchmark Brent crude futures rose $1.62, or 1.8%, to $90.84 a barrel around lunchtime in London.
The head of the International Energy Agency (IEA), Fatih Birol, said the deteriorating situation around the strait of Hormuz was accentuating security concerns about the supply of oil but that the markets “continue to benefit from several cushioning factorsâ€.
Among these were supplies from Gulf nations, including Saudi Arabia and the UAE, continuing to reach global markets through alternative routes to the strait of Hormuz, and producers from outside the Middle East increasing their exports to make some of the shortfall.
But, Birol added in a statement, the “full and unconditional reopening of the strait of Hormuz will be essential to avoid a further deterioration in global energy securityâ€.
He said:
double quotation mark There is no room for complacency on oil security amid the escalation in hostilities and a continued drawdown of available commercial inventories. Refinery activity and product supplies have not picked up as much as crude deliveries, meaning that markets for refined oil products, including diesel and gasoline, are considerably tighter than those for crude.â€
Iranian president hails ‘increased communication’ with yet-to-be-seen supreme leader
The president of Iran, Masoud Pezeshkian, said the level of communication with the supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, has “increased†and that he continues to guide decisions for the country, according to state media.
That is despite the leader not being seen in public since the US-Israeli war against Iran began in late February. He assumed the role of supreme leader shortly after his father was killed in US-Israeli strikes in Tehran on 28 February and has only communicated through written statements published in state media.
Speaking at a public event today, Pezeshkian said: “Now, with increased communication and greater access to our beloved leader, all actions are organised according to his guidelines.â€
Kuwait's energy ministry said Iran has targeted power and desalination plants for a fourth day in a row as attacks continued to escalate in the region.
In a statement on its website, the Kuwaiti ministry of electricity, water and renewable energy said “several†plants were attacked yesterday for a fourth consecutive day, resulting in fires and damage.
About 90% of Kuwait's drinking water comes from desalination, according to the Associated Press.
Iran official begins meeting with mediators in Pakistan – AP
Iran's interior minister, Eskandar Momeni, has begun meetings with mediators in Pakistan as diplomatic efforts continue in a bid to salvage the interim deal between the US and Iran.
Momeni met Pakistan's army chief Asim Munir and is also expected to meet the Pakistani prime minister, Shehbaz Sharif, later today, the Associated Press reported, citing two officials who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the closed-door negotiations.
Authorities did not immediately release details of the meeting, which came as Iran continued its attacks on Gulf Arab allies of the US.
Pakistan played a key role in brokering last month's interim agreement and has worked to persuade both sides back to the negotiating table.
Here are some early images of the Lebanese army being deployed to the village of Zawtar al-Gharbiyeh in southern Lebanon after Israeli forces withdrew from the area:
As mentioned in a previous post, the Lebanese army will resume control of the village as part of the “pilot zone programme†agreed under the US-brokered deal between Lebanon and Israel, which will see the Israeli military gradually withdraw from areas it occupies in southern Lebanon.
Israel has ‘no interest’ in joining US strikes against Iran, says Smotrich
The far-right Israeli finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, said Israel has “no interest†in joining US military operations against Iran, according to local media reports.
Israel has largely kept out of the renewed fighting between the US and Iran in recent weeks, after Washington reportedly requested Israel sit out of the conflict while negotiations were ongoing following the April ceasefire. While an agreement was signed by the US and Iran last month, it was short-lived, and the momentary lull in fighting was followed by back and forth strikes between the two countries as they battle for control of the strait of Hormuz.
“The current situation, in which there is a limited conflict between Iran and the United States, is the right and the best one for us. We're not looking to push ourselves in,†Smotrich said at a conference, according to the Israel newspaper Haaretz.
Bahrain's military has said it has intercepted a number of Iranian attacks. Earlier, the Iranian army claimed to have launched a drone attack against US military targets at the Sheikh Isa airbase in the Bahrain.
“The air defences of the Bahrain Defence Force intercepted and destroyed a number of Iranian aerial aggressions,†the military said in a statement on X.
