In the largest round of strikes on shipping by either side since the beginning of the six-month-old conflict, Iran announced on Wednesday that it had assaulted ten ships close to the Strait of Hormuz after the US sank five Iranian oil tankers.
The attacks caused the price of oil to soar, with benchmark Brent crude futures breaking $100 per barrel for the first time since July. On a tanker, at least one seafarer was confirmed dead, and another was reported missing.
The events come after a month of comparatively quiet time during which the US attempted to exert economic pressure on Iran. Iran claimed to have fired ballistic missiles against a US military installation in Jordan. According to Jordan, it intercepted eighteen missiles, two of which fell harmlessly in uninhabited areas. According to a US official, every American soldier was present.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards declared that they would swiftly publish maps of a new, expanded off-limits zone at sea that would reach as far as Chabahar on the coast bordering Pakistan and that they would drastically intensify their response to any such strikes.President Donald Trump said that Tehran was attempting to sway the US midterm elections in November, which will decide whether or not his Republican Party will continue to dominate Congress.
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